Hippopotamus are large semi-aquatic herbivorous mammals native to sub-Saharan Africa. They are classified as artiodactyls and are the third largest type of land mammal. Hippos inhabit rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps, congregating in groups in water during the day and dispersing at night to graze on land. They face threats from habitat loss and hunting. Proper care of captive hippos requires large enclosures with both land and water areas and a diet high in fiber. Common health issues include obesity, dental problems, and infections.

1. HIPPOPOTAMUS

2. OUTLINE
Introduction
Classification
Physical characters
Habitat
Diet
Handling
Management
Clinical problems
Treatment
Behavior
Ethics and welfare
Interesting facts

3. INTRODUCTION
•The hippopotamus or hippo, is a large, mostly herbivorous,
semi-aquatic mammal
•After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippo is the third largest
type of mammal
•Commonly called as river horse
•The closest living relatives are cetaceans
•4 distinct sections of stomach but are not ruminants
•Have no gall bladder

5. CLASSIFICATION
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Artiodactyla
Family Hippopotamidae
Genus Hippopotamus
Species H. Amphibius
Choeropsis liberiensis

6. PHYSICAL CHARACTERS
Barrel shaped body nearly hairless
Wide opening mouth revealing large canine tusks
Body weight : Male 1500kg Female 1300kg
Despite its stocky shape and short legs, it is capable of running
30km/h
Body length: 280-350cm
Tail length: 35-40cm
Shoulder height: 130-165cm

9. HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION
•Hippos are confined to Africa wherever conditions are
suitable, where there is water and open grazing
•The present distribution of hippo is shrinking
•A hippo will aggregate in permanent water sources or
wallows during the dry season and disperse widely during
the rainy season

12. DIET
Diet in the wild:
Hippos are herbivorous with vast majority of
the food eaten being grass
•They are termed as pseudo-ruminants
•Sometimes eat aquatic plants
•Also occasionally eat the leaves, bark or fallen fruit of trees
•There have been many occurrences of hippos being observed
eating meat and even indulging in cannibalism
•Observations of scavenging are most common

14. Diet in the captivity:
• As a non-selective grazing
species, captive hippos are commonly fed a high fiber
ration based on grass hays
•Typically consume approx 1.5% of their BW daily
•Diet should contain approx 12-15% protein and 38-44%
neutral detergent fiber
•Care should be taken to avoid animals becoming
overweight
•It is important to know the weight of hippo to determine the
amount of hay to be fed

17. HANDLING
 TIMING OF CAPTURE:
• If the transport is short, such as an internal movement
within the zoo, then an early morning capture would be
best to give the Hippo daylight hours to familiarize with
the new facility
• If the transfer is over a great distance, it would be best
to capture the Hippo in the evening and transfer them
overnight when it is coolest

18. •A crush is the best way to physically restrain a
Hippopotamus
• Training and conditioning can be done to be able to calmly
restrain them in a chute or transport crate
• Hippos that are not conditioned in this way will need to be
chemically restrained
• Chemical restraint in Hippos requires veterinary assistance
to anaesthetize, usually with Etorphine

20. •The weighing of Hippos requires large animal or industrial size
scales
•Animals can be conditioned to stand on scales that may be
placed in a raceway or crush
•Simple health checks and procedures can also be done in the
crush with Hippos that have been conditioned to this
•Such procedures may include inspections of the mouth and
tusks, filing of the tusks and ultrasound

23. •Release from the crush is as simple as opening a slide and
letting the Hippo go
•However, release from a transport crate, particularly after a long
transport is more difficult
•As the Hippo is probably slightly stressed from the process, care
needs to be taken when releasing
• The release area should preferably be in an open space
•The transport crate should be facing a water body for the hippo
to submerge in

24. MANAGEMENT
1. The size and strength of the Common Hippo necessitates a
stout barrier to separate animals from staff and visitors
2.Hippos require water areas for submersing and pools should be
at least 1.5 – 2.5 meters deep
3.There should be land areas as well to provide grazing
opportunities and areas to bask, particularly in winter
4.For breeding groups, space should be available to separately
house females with calves or separate the bull
Exhibit/Enclosure Design:

25. 1. Holding areas for Hippopotamuses are two phased and
include a concrete yard and water yard
2. The concrete yard requires shelter on three sides as well as a
roof over part of this yard
3. In this area there should be a sprinkler system , ideally in the
roof, to keep animals wet if they are required to be locked out of
the water
4. Each concrete yard should have an attached water yard for the
Hippo to submerse in

28. The General Standards for Exhibiting Animals states that the size and
shape of an exhibit must provide for the animal freedom of movement,
both vertically and horizontally
a) Avoid undue domination by an individual or individuals
b) Avoid the risk of persistent and unresolved conflict between
the group or individuals
c) Make it possible for an animal to withdraw from other animals
or the public
d) Ensure that the carrying capacity of the enclosure is not
exceeded
e) Prevent an uncontrolled accumulation of pathogens and
parasites
f) Encourage and permit exercise and behavioral enrichment

30. •As Hippopotamuses generally retreat to the water for protection
from the weather, there is no specific requirement for this
•However, night yards should have protection on three sides and
partially over the roof to offer protection from wind and sun whilst
sleeping
• Hippos will generally rest in the water during summer months,
however, shade should still be provided either in the form of
trees or an artificial roof to provide a shaded area for sleeping if
required

33. CLINICAL PROBLEMS:
1. Obesity
2. Dental problems
3. Musculoskeletal problems
4. Trauma
5. Fluke infection
6. Coccidiasis
7. Nematodiasis
8. Salmonellosis
9. Anthrax

34. Obesity or over nutrition is a common problem in
captive Hippos, which may in turn exacerbate other problems
such as degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis and lead
to problems with breeding
Due to their largely sedentary lifestyle and restricted movements
in captivity, where they would naturally walk anywhere up to
10km in a night to graze, care needs to be taken to avoid
animals becoming overweight
Dental problems:
Dental problems are common in
captive Hippos and are usually caused through fighting with
other Hippos or attempting to fight between steel fences

38. Inactivity, limited exercise space, obesity, and housing on hard
surfaces (concrete) for long periods of time may contribute to
the development and progression of musculoskeletal problems
Trauma:
•This is usually due to fighting between Hippos
• Males and females will all exhibit aggression towards each
other at various times
• The most significant cause of neonatal mortality in captivity is
trauma, including parental aggression (typically the male)

39. Infection by the fluke worm Oculotrema hippopotami, usually
located in the conjuctival sac
Coccdiosis:
Single celled, microscopic parasites that infect the intestinal
tract
Nematodiasis:
Worm infestation caused by Ascaris sp. and Capillaria sp.
which are species of roundworm
Salmonellosis:
Infection of Salmonella spp. a bacteria

40. •Infection by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis
•In herbivores such as the Hippo, it is contracted through
grazing as the spores lie dormant in the soil for decades
• Anthrax is the most significant infectious disease in wild
Hippos
Deadly anthrax outbreak in Zambia caused by
hippo meat

41. TREATMENT:
• Fecal screening for parasites is performed twice yearly and
worming medications are dispensed according to the results of
those tests (personal observation).
• At the present time, vaccinations are generally not
recommended
• Conditioning for routine tusk trimming can prevent oral traumas
in those animals with long, malformed or broken tusks

42. BEHAVIOR:
1.Activity:
• Although capable of fast movement when alarmed or
provoked, the Hippo has few conspicuously energetic
activities
• A Hippo will spend its daytime hours lying in the shallows or
sleeping on a sandbank by the water
• Hippos are nocturnal and will spend the night out grazing
• Whatever forms their nocturnal activity may take, most
Hippos are back in their wallows well before dawn

44. 2.Communication:
•The resonant honking call made by submerged hippos is
one of the most familiar and impressive African wildlife
sounds
• Hippos exhale their breath to express threat and alarm
• Urine testing with the vomeronasal organ, presumably
functions to communicate the reproductive status of females
and possible of males as well
•Visual signals also play an obvious role in the daytime
interactions of submerged Hippos such as yawning displays,
charging and dung showering

45. 3.Social life:
• Hippos are highly gregarious, contact species in the water,
but solitary when foraging
• The Hippopotamus is socially schizophrenic, tolerating close
contact in water or resting on shore and yet at other times
being highly aggressive
4.Territoriality:
• Hippos are territorial only in the water, with the males holding
a linear territory consisting of the shoreline and a narrow strip of
the bank
• Territorial bulls usually tolerate bachelor males within their
domain and even in cow herds, so long as they refrain from
sexual activity

46. •Bulls questing for mating opportunities may wander through
basking nursery herds sniffing at cows backsides, at the risk of
being mobbed should the cows become disturbed
• To avoid this, a bull moves very carefully and if a female
stands up or there is an alarm, he lies down in submission,
defecating over the densely packed herd
• Having located an estrous female, the male will waste no time
on courtship displays but will pursue her through the water until
she turns and clashes jaws with him
•Cows isolate prior to calving, on land or in shallow water and
do not return to the herd for a couple of weeks

47. ETHICS & WELFARE:
•Hippo population are threatened by hunting
•Humans are pushing hippos out of their
•Appeal of FIAPO to AWB and MoEF for amendments in the
existing prevention to cruelty to animals act
•The death of a hippo due to alleged negligence of Gemini
circus in Kerala has led to this urgent appeal
•A FIAPO person said:
‘Animals in circuses are subjected to poor living
conditions and forced to perform unnatural tricks and are
kept chained and they don’t have access to proper
veterinary care. We have urged the authorities to take
immediate action against Gemini circus for causing the
death of hippopotamus’

48. INTERESTING FACTS:
1. Hippo have no gall bladder
2.They can live up to 50 years in wild
3.There are reports of meat-eating , even cannibalism and
predation . The stomach anatomy of a hippo is not suited to
carnivory, and meat eating is likely caused by aberrant behavior
or nutritional stress
4.A hippo’s skin is bullet proof
5.They can run with the speed of 30km/h

49. 9. Hippos can close their nostrils and ears to prevent water
from entering
10. A drug lord and the world’s largest invasive animal
6.Hippopotamus is the world’s deadliest large land animal,
killing an estimated 500 people per year in Africa
7.Hippos secrete a reddish oily fluid sometimes called ‘blood
sweat” from special glands in their skin
8. They can hold their breath for approximately seven minutes