15/02/2021
Today is World Hippo Day, a day to celebrate these remarkable creatures. 🦛
Hippos are the world’s third largest land mammals and can weigh up to 1,500kg and consume up to 40kg of grass per meal. While they bear a resemblance to horses and pigs, these semi-aquatic mammals are in fact most closely related to whales, dolphins and porpoises – no wonder they’re so good at holding their breath underwater!
An old tale about how hippos came to live in the river describes how the hippo wanted to find refuge from the hot African sun burning its soft skin. But because of its huge size, the hippo had to make a promise to smaller river animals to keep its mouth wide open every day to show that there were no fish bones and scales inside. River animals can rest assured that hippos are mostly herbivorous and eat around 40kgs of grass each day.
Hippo Day reminds us to celebrate and value these mud-loving mammals, in the hope that they’ll be around for many more years to come.
SPONSORED BY Tanzania analog travel