Hippopotamus

The hippo (hippopotamus) spends most of its time wallowing in lakes and rivers in the jungles of western Africa. Hippos are generally solitary animals but can often be found in groups of between 5 and 30 hippo individuals. Even though the hippo has a pig-like appearance, the closet mammal relatives to the hippo are the whale and the porpoise both of which are found in the oceans. Despite the fact that hippos are roughly the same size and weight of a rhino, some hippos have been seen running at speeds of up to 30mph and the hippo is therefore seen to be the third heaviest animals in the world.

Apparently the hippo has pink sweat, which not only cools the hippo down when the hippo gets too hot, but also has antibacterial properties helping to fight infection in the thick skin of the hippo when the hippo is bitten or injured when fighting, generally with rival hippos. The hippo is also remarkable for the fact that it can take in enough air to stay underwater for half an hour before the hippo needs to resurface again, an astonishing feet seeing as the hippo is a mammal and therefore does not have gills that aid the animal in breathing underwater.

Many people think that large animals such as hippos are lazy and docile and will therefore pose no threat to humans. The hippo is known to be one of Africas most dangerous animals as when you combine the sheer size of the hippo, the territorial temperament of the hippo and the fact that a hippo is capable of running at immense pace (and can easily outrun a human) a wild hippo can therefore become extremely dangerous. The average hippo spends most of the hot daytime cooling itself in the colder water environment in the African jungle.

Despite the immense size of the hippo, hippos have a nearly completely herbivorous diet, as the hippos munch on aquatic water plants during the day and the hippo is capable of eating around 50kg of grass in one go in the cooler night. The hippo has large tusks at the front of the mouth of the hippo which are capable of growing to more than a foot in length. The hippo mainly uses these tusks for fighting off predators and rival hippos and the hippo can therefore give another large animal a near fatal bite. Source

Article by En.wikipedia.org