AnimalvsAnimal
Portrait of a Hippopotamus in water in Saadani National Park🦛

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesArtiodactylaHippopotamidae
Mammals

🦛Hippopotamus

Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus, 1758

Hroch obojživelný (Hippopotamus amphibius) je velký sudokopytník z čeledi hrochovitých, adaptovaný k životu ve vodním prostředí. Vyskytuje se v Africe na jih od Sahary. Jeho nejbližším příbuzným je hrošík liberijský. Dříve byli hroši pokládání za příbuzné prasat, podle nedávných výzkumů jsou však jejich nejbližšími žijícími přibuzními kytovci.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
356
Photos
6
Measurements
14
vs you
≈ 43× your weight
Also called
Nile hippopotamus, Hippo, Common Hippopotamus, Large Hippo, River Hippopotamus
Conservation status
VUVulnerable

IUCN Red List assessment, 2017.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
2,640 kg
Body length
5.05 m
Shoulder height
1.47 m
Top speed
24 km/h
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
61 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Hippopotamus

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
2,640 kg
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 3,750 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
5.05 m
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height
1.47 maverage1.44–1.5 m · range across sexes
Other figures ↓

Species-level value synthesised as the mean of: female, male.

By sex

  • Male1.5 mKlingel 2013, Mammals of Africa VIHeight at the shoulder.
  • Female1.44 mKlingel 2013, Mammals of Africa VIHeight at the shoulder.
Top speed
24 km/h
Details ↓

Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. On land. Compilations give 24.36 and 25.0 km/h, but no hippo has ever been properly timed; these trace back to Garland's 1983 table.

Source: Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238 and Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation

Brain mass
631 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
61 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 61 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Generation length
9.99 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
5.6 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
235 days
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 234 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Litter size
1
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Trophic level
Herbivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Nocturnal
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
4.76 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
2,640 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Hippopotamus yet: bite force.

More

More about the Hippopotamus

What it eats
leaves, roots and other plants100%
In other languages
Hippopotamus amphibius (it), Flusspferd (de), Hippopotamus amphibius (fr), hroch obojživelný (cs), Hippopotamus amphibius (es), hipopotam nilowy (pl) … and 28 more languages

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