Angry, Angry Hippos

Hippopotamuses are by nature very aggressive animals. 

 Picture from The Telegraph

Hippos involved in attacks on other animals are often either mature bulls, which tend to be very territorial and ill-tempered, or females, which are protecting their young.  Due to their ill temperament and great size, adult hippopotamus are not usually subject to predation by other animals, only humans.

Animal Facts: Hippo Sweat

How are hippos able to stand out in the hot sun all day and never get a sunburn? Because their sweat is a natural sunblock!

Hippo sweat contains microscopic particles that scatter the light, so it's not concentrated on the hippos' skin. The sweat is also red in color due to orange and yellow pigments, which are able to aborb untraviolet light. While this red sweat helps keep the hippos from burning, it does tend to make it look like their bleeding - not a pretty sight!

This hippo isn't hurt, just really hot!

The Gigantic Gaur

Though not as large as some domesticated cattle, gaur are the largest wild cattle on earth. In fact, the only land animals that regularly grow heavier than gaur are elephants, rhinos and hippos. The largest male gaur can be ten feet long, stand over six feet tall at the shoulders and weigh well over 4,000lbs!

Gaur are mostly dark brown in color with older bulls appearing nearly black. Males can be identified by the large dorsal ridge on their backs which can extend several inches higher than the rump. Both sexes feature horns that can be over two feet long connected on the head by a grey ridge of fur.

Once common throughout most of southern Asia, gaur populations have seriously declined and fragmented over the last fifty years. Overhunting, poaching and destruction of habitat are the main causes of this, leading to these animals currently being classified as vulnerable and nearly endangered. Their current ranges included portions of India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.

Gaur are not known to be particularly aggressive animals and rarely fight even amongst themselves. Fully grown males are far too large for any natural predator except for tigers, and have even been known to kill tigers in self defense. However, herds near human populations can be short tempered towards both humans and livestock animals.

Donna the Hippo Turns 60

This past weekend the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden in Evansville, Indiana celebrated quite a milestone by wishing a happy birthday to Donna the hippopotamus, who turns 60 this year.



Photo: Erin McCracken

 Donna has been at the Evansville Zoo since 1956 and is the oldest living Nile hippo in captivity. The second oldest Nile hippo is Donna’s sister Julie, who lives at the Memphis Zoo and will turn 50 this year.

Although Donna’s actual birthday isn’t until August 7th, the zoo always celebrates her birthday in July. As part of the celebration, patrons could share in a birthday cake, and Donna was given watermelons and fruit popsicles as special treats. Zookeepers attribute Donna’s long life to her easygoing personality.

Story via the Evansville Courier & Press

Pairing Up

Who ever said different species don’t get along? While researching for this blog, I stumbled upon some of these photos of strange animal pairings. They were too funny not to show, so check them out and have a good chuckle!

Mouse and Frog

Turtle and Hippo

Pony and Cat

Bird and Mouse

No Swimming for Hippos!

The hippo spends most of its day in water. With eyes, ears and nostrils on the top of its head, it can hear, see and breathe while being almost completely underwater. They can also hold their breath for five minutes or longer when submerged. However, even though the hippo adapted to life under the sea, it cannot swim. It can’t even float because its body is extremely dense. So, it stays in shallow, slow-moving waters, and either walks along the shore or pushes itself off the bottom of the river or lake it resides in.

Bonus Fact: A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4-foot child inside!

Don't Get Too Tired: The Weekend is Almost Here!

Happy Friday! If you’re a little tired from a long week’s work, you’re not alone! In fact, all animals yawn when they’re tired. So, check out these different examples of yawning — but beware! — it’s contagious.

Unlikely Relatives: Whales & Hippos

Did you know that the hippo's closest relative is the whale? The two mammals share a common ancestor that lived about 60 million years ago.

This ancestor evolved into two groups of animals: early cetaceans, which became whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and a group of unusual land animals.

The only surviving descendent of these land animals is the hippo, making its distant cousin the whale its closest surviving relative!

Calvin Coolidge's Many Presidential Pets

President Calvin Coolidge once said “Any man who does not like dogs and want them about, does not deserve to be in the White House.” This probably went for other animals as well, for Coolidge and his family acquired even more pets than the Roosevelts.

During Coolidge's two terms in office, the White House almost literally became a zoo. Exotic animals such as lion cubs, bears, an antelope, wallaby, bobcat and a pygmy hippo were all part of the menagerie. And, of course, there were more typical pets, over 12 dogs, 4 cats and at least 3 canaries.The Coolidges owned a beloved donkey named Ebeneezer, and commandeered one of the White House trees to build a special house for their 2 raccoons—Rebecca and Horace.

Rebecca was quite lively and enjoyed playing in the First Lady's bathtub with "a little water in it and a cake of soap." Another one of Rebecca's favorite games was climbing up the President and draping herself about his neck. The picture below shows First Lady, Grace Coolidge, out at the Easter Egg Roll with Rebecca.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Water or mud creatures by day

Picture by Bert Glibbery.

A group of hippos, usually up to 40, is called a pod, herd, dale, or bloat. The word hippopotamus originated from the Greek and could be translated “river horse.” A hippo can run faster than a human and they have been clocked at 30 miles per hour for short distances. Hippos average 11 feet long!

Some pluralize hippopotamus as "hippopotamuses" and others as "hippopotami." No wonder many of us just use "hippos."

Jungle Jane

African Animals

This is a really cool video of African animals accompanied by an Enya song. Watching it just makes me want to go to Africa and go on a safari to experience it myself!



If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll actually know the name of the oryx when you see him walk across in front of the ostrich. The zebra is not biting his fellow herd-mate, but grooming him. I loved the surprise of the hippos popping to the surface. And even baby hyenas are cute. This video reminded me of those African animals not yet blogged, so I plan to remedy that over the next few days.

If you’d like to hear some real African music while watching more animals, try this video of Kenya music. Warning: it’s 9 minutes long and there are sections with just bird sounds.



Happy New Year!