Only in Africa, where hippos are born, nature has created the most favorable conditions for their existence. No other continent can boast such large animals that spend most of their lives in the water.
Why does a hippopotamus mean hippopotamus in Russian?
The name of the animal - Hippopotamus amphibius - was given by Carl Linnaeus. Hippo is translated from Greek as a river horse, and amphibius - amphibious - living in two environments, on the ground (where it feeds) and in the water, where the hippopotamus is born and spends most of the day.
Behemoth is called in the countries of the post-Soviet space. Back in the 18th century in Russia, they began to call the hippo so. And already from the Russian language it migrated to Ukrainian, Belarusian and all other languages of the USSR. The word "behemoth" came from the Bible, where this name refers to one of the two huge monsters (the first Leviathan), created by God as the personification of carnal desires. (This is the context in which the word "behemoth" is used in all other languages.)
Comparative hippo sizes
The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) is considered one of the largest animals in the world, in first placethere is an elephant, on the second is a rhinoceros. The habitat of the latter is the same lowlands of the continent where the hippopotamus is born. The weight of a large old male is on average four tons. Females up to the age of ten weigh the same as males. And then the males gain weight faster, although both grow throughout their lives.
In Europe, the polar bear is considered the largest animal: the largest (ever weighed) male weighed 1003 kg, although animals usually walk on the ice of the Arctic no heavier than half a ton.
Climatic conditions and a rich food base of the territories where hippos are born allow them to grow and gain such a gigantic weight. The height at the withers in males is only 1.65 meters, but the length is 3 m on average, specimens up to 5.5 meters have been seen.
Life in the herd
Despite the popularity of the hippopotamus as an animal, its behavior and lifestyle are relatively poorly studied. This is hindered by the fact that animals spend daylight hours in the water. The life of a hippo obeys a strict routine: during the day it sleeps or naps, periodically reflexively surfacing to inhale (after 2-10 minutes), at night it goes to the shore of a reservoir to eat grass and leaves.
Hippopotamuses walk along trails to feed, and the direction may not change for years. They trample down ruts up to half a meter deep. In places where herds of hippos have lived for a long time, deep wide paths are laid even in rocky shores.
Females live in a harem dominated by only one adult male. The number of the herd reaches 20-30 individuals. Males fight for possession of the harem. Everything goes to the winnernumerous households. Females (according to a few observations) do not change the harem. The herd keeps quite compactly, females without babies are outside, inside there are cubs with mothers. It is impossible even for a dominant male to get through the outer fence. Such protection is necessary because small animals can be easily trampled by a clumsy male (or eaten by a stranger).
Where are hippos born?
Females are ready for mating already 7 years after birth, males - from 6 to 14 years. (For information: it is believed that under natural conditions, hippos live up to forty years, in zoo conditions - much longer, examples of sixty-year-old centenarians are known.)
The study of the birth of hippos in natural conditions is extremely low. Africans have observed that hippos are born underwater more often than on land.
Before giving birth, the female usually moves away from the herd, choosing a shallow pond where the hippopotamus is born. The baby usually weighs an average of 40 to 50 kg, always one is born. The mother must immediately push him to the surface, otherwise he may choke.
During childbirth on the shore, the female prepares a “nest”, tightly trampling grass and bushes. Already five minutes after birth, he can easily move on land.
What are little hippos like?
The length of the kids is 1 m, the height at the shoulders is up to 60 cm. The weight can be from 27 to 50 kg. Since hippos are born under water, the mother must very often push the newborn out of the water: hecan hold his breath for only 40 seconds.
In the first ten days after birth, a lactating female does not approach the herd, protecting the cub. She may even go without food for several days with her cub until it learns to go ashore on its own.
Baby sucks her both on land and in water, pressing her ears and closing her nostrils.
The baby hippo stays with her mother until she is 18 months old, which is how long she is lactating.
Hippos are born underwater
Photos and video surveillance of the life of these wild animals, taken by numerous tourists and zoo visitors, are constantly posted on the Internet. This is documentary evidence that hippos are born both in water and on land. The process of childbirth does not look painful, rather, its spontaneity and transience surprises.
The first hippo arrived at the London Zoo in 1880. Now almost every large menagerie can boast not only the presence of hippos, but also the appearance of their offspring. In Russia, for the first time, a hippopotamus was born in the zoo of St. Petersburg in 1880. And during the Great Patriotic War, a he althy baby was born in the Moscow Zoological Garden.
Modern zoos, where hippos are born underwater, have capacious reservoirs. These animals attract a large number of visitors, who stand idle in front of the enclosures for hours.
Interesting moments
BIn the middle of the last century, scientists seriously studied the issue of the domestication of the hippopotamus. This assumption is based on the fact that the inhabitants of Africa have been eating hippopotamus meat for a very long time. Nutrition, delicate taste and a large amount of meat (up to 500 kg from an individual weighing two tons) make it possible to try to solve the problem of hunger on the continent.
The hippo, according to modern scientists, is very close in its physiological data to cetaceans (and not to pigs, as previously thought): whales and hippos live, exchange sounds, give birth to cubs in the water. Both do not have sebaceous glands and hairline, in males the seminal glands are located inside the body.
In nature, hippos have very few enemies: even with three lions, animals are relatively easy to deal with. A hippo bites a three-meter crocodile in half. And if a careless alligator disturbs the peace of the herd, he will definitely not be in trouble.
