Hippos
Hippo is short for hippopotamus.
Hippos are heavy. A hippo is as heavy as 12 pigs!
Hippos live in rivers and lakes in Africa. They go onto land to eat grass and fruit.
They are made for life in the water: their eyes, ears, and nostrils are on top of their head.
They can see, hear, and breathe while most of their body is under the water.
Hippos don't float or swim. They move around in the water by pushing off the bottom of the river with their feet. If you saw it under the water, it would look like the hippo was walking or running.
Hippos can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes.
Hippos need to protect their skin from the hot sun, so they spend a lot of the day in the water. When they are out of the water, hippos ooze a thick, red goo out of their skin. It is called "blood sweat" but it is not blood. The red goo works like sun cream.
A hippo's skull
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Hippos have big, pointy tusks. They use their tusks to defend themselves against attackers.