Nile Photo Gallery Hippopotamus

Scientific Name: Hippopotamus amphibius

Home: The rivers, lakes, swamps, and wallows of Africa

Description: Barrel-shaped, blue-gray body with pink belly, large head, stumpy legs.

Creature Profile The Hippopotamus, whose name means "river horse", is a plant-eating water-loving giant. A relative of camels, pigs, and deer, the hippo has two lives in one! The center of a hippo's day life is water. Like a hippo pool-party, sometimes hundreds of hippos, will share a territory of water during the day. Whether it's mating, playing, fighting or giving birth, hippo's all wet. The hippo's night life begins a few hours after sunset, when all the hippos file out of the water to graze on land by the light of the moon.