Wednesday 17 April 2013

The Hippopotamus


The Hippopotamus was named by the greeks as the “river horse” because they love water, they can spend up to 16 hours a day in rivers and lakes to keep themselves cool in the African sun. If I spent that long in water, there’s a chance the wrinkles would make me look like some sort of giant raison



Location: Africa
Diet: Herbivore
Lifespan: Up to 40 years in the wild
Interesting fact: When hippos bask on the shoreline they can often be seen to leak an oily red substance, this started a myth at how hippos sweat blood. In fact the liquid is a skin moistener and sunblock which can also provide protection from germs.

Here’s an extraordinary video of Karl Pilkington visiting a family that have a hippo as a pet. We really would not recommend this, but we do love Karl pilkington’s reaction!


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