Hippos

=Hippopotamus (Hippo)=

Hippos are huge mammals that live in Africa. They live in freshwater lakes, rivers and swamps where they like to stay in the mud. They come out of the water when the sun goes down at dusk to graze. They walk around for 4-5 hours eating grass.

Hippos can't jump but they can climb up steep river banks. They have webbed feet but they can't swim very well. They can't float at all so they don't go in deep water.

Hippos are the third largest mammals on land. (Elephants and rhinos are bigger). They weigh between 1½ and 3 tonnes. They have massive mouths and teeth, huge hairless bodies and short, stubby feet but they can run faster than humans can, up to 30 km/h (kilometres per hour). It is a cranky animal and is very dangerous even though it only eats plants.

The hippos huge mouth can open very wide, and it has massive teeth that never stop growing. They don't use these teeth for eating, only for fighting other hippos. They use their wide, thorny lips to pull grass out of the ground, and then chew the grass up with their back teeth. They eat about 68 kilograms of grass every night. (They will eat other plants if someone gives some to them, but in the wild, they only eat grass.)

Not many other animals are brave enough to prey on a hippo, but baby hippos are sometimes eaten by crocodiles, lions and hyenas.

Source: Wikipedia []