Adorable Baby Hippo Facts That Will Melt Your Heart
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Hippos are angry, aggressive and dangerous. They're also undeniably cute. With small ears and a permanent smile, it's difficult not to let these animals take over your heart — especially when they are babies.
What are hippos like when they are young? Learn more about baby hippos with these fun facts that will make you love the species even more.
Hippos Are Pregnant for 8 Months
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Though some mammals, like elephants, can have a gestation period of 22 months (imagine that), hippos are pregnant for one month less than humans.
After giving birth, female hippos give themselves a break, not mating again for about 17 months.
Baby Hippo Twins Exist
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Twins are already an anomaly for this species. When it happens, one calf usually dies before reaching maturity.
Humans have only observed the birth of five hippo twins, and only in one case did they both survive.
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Water Births Are the Norm
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Water births for humans are seen as "alternative" in the U.S., but they are the norm for hippos.
Rather than being surrounded by their float (a hippo herd), female hippos go away on their own and find a spot in shallow water. They give birth alone and stay with their calf for a couple of days before returning to the group.
Like Ducks in the Water
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Given how they enter this world, it's no surprise that baby hippos are immediately comfortable in the water.
However, like adult hippos, they can't swim or float. Instead, they walk around the bottom of rivers and then push themselves up to the surface to breathe. They're also born with a reflex that allows them to do this in their sleep, so they can rest without drowning.
No swimming lessons necessary.
They Even Breast Feed Underwater
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As with many mammals, hippos can't process food at first. To avoid predators, female hippos breastfeed their babies underwater.
The calf's ears and nostrils close off as they usually do when they are submerged, but they can still suckle without breathing by creating a very tight latch. How cool is that?
And Add Grass to Their Diets Soon After
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After around three weeks of exclusively surviving on breast milk, baby hippos will start to eat grass to supplement their diet.
They continue to be breastfeed for another seven to eight months before weaning off completely.
They're Massive Even at Birth
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It's easy to imagine that all babies are small and cute, but in the grand scheme of things, baby hippos are huge.
Newborns weigh around 100 pounds (and adults can weigh up to 9,921 pounds). For comparison, the average weight for human babies ranges between five and eight pounds at birth.
They Have Predators
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Adult hippos are seldom seen as prey. Who'd want to go up against a 9,000-pound beast that can run 20 miles per hour and has a bite force of 1,800 pounds? When food is scarce, lions have been known to attack a single hippo in groups of five or more, but this is unusual.
The same can't be said for baby hippos. Crocodiles, lions and other predators of sub-Saharan Africa prey on calves, who are small enough to be attacked but big enough to represent a heavy, calorie-rich meal.
Because of this, adult hippos don't tend to let baby hippos wander on their own and are protective of them.
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You Can Probably Guess the Biggest Threat They Face
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Crocodiles and lions are scary, but they're not the main cause of concern for baby — or adult — hippos. The biggest threat to this species is, you guessed it, humans.
Hippopotamuses only live in Africa, and their numbers are dwindling enough to have them be declared regionally extinct in Algeria, Egypt and Mauritania. Habitat loss due to overdevelopment and human-made pollution is the primary cause of this. Poaching is another problem, given the large demand for ivory, which can be found in their teeth.
It's rare for baby hippos to be poached since their teeth are smaller, but they do suffer from an encroaching lack of habitat caused by our activities.
Baby Hippos Are Not Dangerous, But You Still Want to Avoid Them
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Hippos are notoriously one of the most dangerous animals in the world, killing around 500 humans per year. But can a baby hippo harm a human? In theory, a baby hippo bite could hurt even an adult. However, it's uncommon for them to attack any animal when they are so young.
You'll still want to leave immediately if you see a baby hippo in the wild. Adults are notoriously aggressive animals who charge against intruders in their territory. And they tend to get even more aggressive when calves are around to protect them.
The moral of the story: Baby hippos are cute as heck, but should be seen only at a safe distance.