What makes hippos so aggressive

There is evidence that they not only occasionally eat meat — but are predators too. It has even been reported that they occasionally eat each other! In , as an example, a small boat of school children was attacked by a hippo. Thirteen school kids and one teacher died in the incident. Attacks like this are unfortunately what make hippos the most deadly large mammal on the planet. Hippos are also known to wander out of the water to forage on vegetation.

They can eat about 80 pounds of grass a night so they can quickly deplete their local food sources. Scientists have tracked them traveling a kilometer or more a night looking for food.

Roaming activity like this has put them into conflict with humans. They also enjoy eating human crops. And though hippos have sharp teeth that can grow to be 20 inches in length, hippos are not known to eat people, though it is not impossible.

Why are hippos so aggressive? Hippo mothers tend to be very protective of their young, and as approximately only one in ten males ever mate, male hippos become aggressive when seeking the opportunity to mate with a nearby female. As such, the male hippos will often attack and kill, baby hippos that are taking the attention away from the female towards the adult male. Male hippos are also known to attack other male hippos as a way to fight for the attention of the female, and these fights are often to death.

Male hippos that kill baby hippos are doing this as a territorial maneuver, solely for the sake of gaining the ability to mate more quickly with the female.

Most safari and dangerous animal experts feel that hippos are aggressive as a natural reaction to threats. For decades, hippos have been hunted for their meat and their teeth. Over time, hippos have developed a very defensive response to invaders that have made their way into their territory. Nick Lee is a former vet assistant and animal lover who likes to research, write about and share his knowledge of all things animals. He has a poodle mix named Theo and a cat named Mariska, who he loves dearly.

This is why a grown bull hippo can weigh upwards of kilograms. Hippos are not related to pigs despite the physical resemblance. Their closest living relatives are actually the cetaceans such as whales and dolphins. It is believed that they diverged evolutionally speaking about 55 million years ago.

Big as it is, a hippo can run at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour on land. It can move at about 8 kilometres per hour in water. This adds to the dangerous factor because it can very easily surprise and attack an encroaching human or predator. A group of hippos is called a dale, herd, pod or bloat. The most common way to refer to a group of hippos is by calling it a herd. The other terms might be a bit too technical for everyday conversation.

In drier areas where the water source is small, groups of up to might be seen together. Such large groups usually have many power struggles and fights might be witnessed as the dominant bulls assert their power. The bite force of a hippo is 2, pounds per square inch. In Comparison, a lion or a tiger has a bite force of pounds per square inch. This is why very few animals will dare to disturb a hippo's territory, because a hippo will tear up most animals in a single bite.

For farther comparison, an adult human has a bite force of pounds per square inch. Hippopotamuses by defecation. They do this by spinning their tails to distribute their poop as far as possible. Hippos are only territorial in water, and a dominant bull controls a stretch of around meters - with about 10 females. Staying in water helps hippopotamuses stay cool from the strong African sun. A hippo's skin is hairless, which means the sun and bugs are a serious problem to deal with.

Hippos sleep in the water by fully submerging their bodies. They automatically rise up to the surface and breathe without waking up. Otherwise, they would have had to wake up ever 5 minutes to breath, and then go back to sleep for another 5 minutes.

Hippos are herbivores that will graze on grass. Their main diet is short grass and some very few fruits species. Their digestive systems resemble those of other herbivores - with a few their own adaptions. Read our updated article about what hippos eat for more insight into the food and eating habits of hippos. Hippos do not eat meat. The stomach structures of herbivores such as hippos and elephants cannot digest meat.

Hippos do not eat any sort of fish or insects either. While there are some cases that have been noted and studied, the reason for why a hippo would eat meat is unknown. Our article about what hippos eat highlight more on this. A single hippo can eat about 40 kilograms of food. Hippos graze for about 5 hours in the night and cover a territory of up to 8 kilometres. A young one of a hippo is called a calf. The result is a deadly mix: humans and hippos competing over a thin strip of territory.

Nature is reclaiming Naivasha, and the result has led to dangerous melees—ones that humans do not win. Ruth Mumbi lost her husband when a hippo overturned his fishing boat four years ago.

The lake has no outlet. Each year, about six feet of water evaporates from its surface into the sunny sky. A decade ago, after a series of droughts, residents feared the lake might disappear, taking an entire ecosystem and the tourism industry down with it.

The rainy seasons were also wetter than usual. More rainfall brought increased cloud cover, reducing evaporation from the lake. Naivasha is not alone. People built houses, tourist cabins, and even greenhouses on this land, but now many of these structures are underwater. The lakeside town of Kihoto, for example, drowned last year. Today, walls of concrete blocks jut up above the dark waters. Several miles west, the curved tops of flooded greenhouses mark where flower farms have been swallowed.

If the lake keeps growing, more buildings will submerge. A trove of common carp escaped into the lake, where they ate up most the crayfish and ravished the eggs of the tilapia, black bass, and other species prized by sport fishers. The carp multiplied, and fishing became a livelihood. When Lake Naivasha suddenly expanded in , it seemed at first like a boon to the fishing industry.

Fish bred in the rich, untouched soil of newly inundated riparian land. They grew into thousands of pounds of fresh food—more fish than anyone can remember. Now, on the southwestern shore, Karagita boat landing is overrun each morning with fishermen unloading their catches.

Teenage boys are paid pennies to repair old nets that have been tangled or cut by a propeller. And each day, tourists arrive at the landing and hire boat captains to take them on hippo tours. Early one morning, a captain named Douglas Mokano puttered toward a pod of hippos. Watch: Is this hippo in Botswana grieving the loss of her baby? Despite their girth, they manage to squeeze together so tightly that a pod of five hippos looks like a single blob of grey and pink flesh. Kenya Wildlife Service has been unable or unwilling to put a stop to the illegal fishing.

The agency did not respond to repeated requests for comment. One night when they tried to arrest a group of fishermen, the fishermen fought back. They tied up the rangers, overturned their boat, and set it on fire, stranding the rangers until they could be rescued.

Scientists estimate that between 29 and 87 percent of hippo attacks are fatal. Though hippos are herbivores, when grass is hard to come by, on rare occasion s they have been known to eat other animals— even deceased hippos. Kilo has witnessed or investigated eight attacks in which fishermen died. Attacks have become so common that he has transformed his car into a makeshift rescue vehicle, removing the back seats so victims can be loaded easily and laying down plastic to catch the blood.

But Kilo is no EMT. Wabomba treats an average of one or two hippo victims each week.