VIDEO: Aggressive Hippo Attacks Tourists
The video below shows an angry hippo attacking a boat with tourists on board.
Bloody fights are the norm for wild animals.
Even if they are in a safari or in a park, they’ll act on instinct and it’s better to keep your distance.
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For them, it’s survival of the fittest.
According to Live Science, hippopotamuses are large, round, water-loving animals. Though they’re sometimes thought of as cute and cuddly, hippos can actually be quite dangerous; they kill about 3,000 per year.
Hippos live in sub-Saharan Africa. They can only survive in areas with abundant water, though, so they live in areas with rivers and lakes. Hippos are amphibious animals and spend up to 16 hours per day in the water. The water keeps them cool in the African heat. They spend all day in the water and then hunt for food at night.
They are very social and hang out in groups called schools, bloats, pods or sieges. Schools of hippos usually consist of 10 to 30 members of both females and males. Some documented groups of hippos have had as many as 200 members. No matter the size, usually the school is led by a dominant male.
Hippos are very aggressive creatures and are very dangerous. They have large teeth and tusks that they use for fighting off others that they see as threats, including humans. Sometimes, their young are the victims of their temper. During a fight between two adults, a young hippo can be hurt or crushed.
Though hippos move quite quickly through the water, they can’t swim. Hippos move through the water by pushing themselves off other objects.
A hippo eats about 80 lbs. (35 kg) of grass each night. They travel up to 6 miles (10 kilometers) in a night to get their fill. They also eat fruit that they find during their nightly scavenging.
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Females have a gestation period of eight months and have only one baby at a time. At birth, the baby, called a calf, is a whopping 50 to 110 lbs. (23 to 50 kg).
For 18 months, the baby nurses while its mother is on land, or it swims underwater to suckle. When it dives, the calf closes its nose and ears to block out water. All hippos have this ability. They also have membranes that cover and protect their eyes while they are underwater.
At 5 to 7 years old, the hippo calf is fully mature. The median life expectancy of a hippo is 36 years.
According to the IUCN, the common hippo population isn’t endangered, but it is vulnerable, because their numbers have declined by 7 to 20 percent over the past 10 years, and likely will continue to decline. The IUCN estimates that there are between 125,000 and 148,000 common hippos remaining in the wild.
The primary threats to hippos are poaching (for their ivory tusks and their meat), and loss of habitat, as more water is diverted for agriculture, according to the IUCN.
A hippo must stay moist, because if its skin dries out, it will crack. Its skin also secretes a red fluid that is thought to be an antibiotic, sunscreen and skin moisturizer. People once thought that the red secretions were blood and that hippos sweat blood.
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