HIPPOPOTAMUS – Yadanarbon Zoo

HIPPOPOTAMUS

Length Male 5 – 6 ft, Female 5 ft
Weight Male: 3300- 4000 lb, Female: 2900 – 3300 lb
Sexual Maturity Male – >7 years, Female – >5 - 6 years
Gestation Period 8 months
Birth Rate one calf every two years
Life Span (40 – 50) years
HIPPOPOTAMUS (Hippopotamus amphibicus)

Characteristics : Body is big and barrel – shaped but legs are short and stumpy. Wide opening mouth revealing large canine tusks. The skin is thick and secretes a natural sun screen substance which is red-colored. The secretion is sometimes referred as sweat, but is neither blood nor sweat.

Distribution : Africa, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

Habit : After the elephant and rhinoceroses, the common hippo is the third largest type of land mammals and the heaviest extant artiodactyl. Hippos are semiaquatic habits spending the day in lakes and rivers, emerging from the water at night to graze on grass. Hippos stay under water for up 4 – 5 minutes. Female gives birth in the water. A hippo sleep underwater rises and breathes without waking. Hippo is highly aggressive animal.

Food : Herbivores. Their diet is almost entirely of grass.

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