Tag: hippopotamus

Talk about up close and personal, this 3300 pound (1500 kilogram) hippo walked out of the bush only 30 feet from the vehicle.  This massive animal measures 59 inches (1500 millimeters) at the shoulder and is 196 inches (5000 millimeters) long including a 22 inch (560 millimeter) tail.  Being a nocturnal vegetarian the hippopotamus eats about 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of mainly grasses over night.  This early morning sighting in Kruger National Park probably meant it was heading back to water for the day.

It seems that almost every semi-large body of water in Kruger National Park has hippos, dams or lakes and rivers.  And with all the rains lately there is water everywhere.

Hippos hang out in water in large groups called rafts during the day so they don’t sunburn causing their skin to crack.

When the sun goes down they haul their 2 to 5 tons of body and walk up to 4 miles to graze on about 150 pounds of grasses over night.

This makes them rather difficult to photograph as they look rather like boulders in the water.

On occasion more than their eyes and nostrils appear above the water like when they open wide which looks like a yawn but usually shows aggression, or sometimes play.