Hippo World

Hey! I have lots of hippo facts! Hippopotamus comes from a Greek word that means "river horse". The hippo got its name because it spends lots of time in the water. There is a pygmy and a river hippo. The pygmy is rare. It can only weigh up to 600 pounds. The river hippo can weigh up to 8,000 pounds! Hippos are clumsy on land, but they are graceful in the water.They can stay underwater for up to 5 minutes! And now for my favorite fact- their mouths can open to be 4 feet wide! Open yours. How wide can it be? Mine won't even reach 3 inches. Have you ever heard of ivory? It is very rare. That's what hippos' teeth are made of. Hunters want their teeth to sell and get lots of money. The mother hippos' jaws are powerful enough to bite a crocodile in half! Amazing! And some bad news for hippo lovers: (like me): Hippos may become endangered someday! That's very sad to me. There are less than 200,000 wild hippos left in Africa. People keep moving there. I hope you enjoyed these facts! They come from a book called Hippos by Conrad J. Storad. Have you ever read this book? Try to find it at your library.

-Sophie(hippo lover)