9/11/2007 - Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus comes from the greek word meaning "river horse". They live in rivers, lakes and swamps, preferably with sandy banks to lie on and access to grassy areas. Hippos are very social and live in large groups normally of about 10-20 females with their young and a dominant bull. The dominant bull forces young males to leave the herd when they are seven to eight years of age. Larger herds of 50-100 are not uncommon.
Hippos produce an oily red secretion to protect the thin epidermis of their 2inch thick skin from overheating and drying out in the sun. They can stay beneath the water for up to 5 minutes are capable of snoozing while submerged, coming to the surface to breathe automatically.
Hippos are the only mammals, other than whales and dophins, to mate in the water. Young females remain in the herd they were born in and produce their first calf at about 10 years old.
A male hippo weighs between 1,500-3,000kg (3,300-6,600lb). They are second to the elephant in terms of weight.
Hippos are said to cause more human deaths than buffaloes, elephant and rhinos.
Hippos of Lake Manyara … … … … … … … … … Beneath this bull and submerged beneath the water is the female, both caught in the act of mating. This hippo looks to me like he has the biggest grin on his face. From Ngorongoro Crater we drove what they call the Super Highway to the Serengeti. Now that is laughable. This road is un-graded, it is solid rock and dust with so many pot holes, one can't avoid them. There was very little to be seen and at one stage the road was so rough and the dust was so thick, that our driver chose to make a new road. He joked the whole time, telling us we were lost as the only living things we saw were the odd Massai taking a goat to the market and a gazelle here and there. The Massai had miles and miles to walk and it was very hot. Mum and I joked how it would have been better to walk than drive on this terrible road but when we saw how barren and dry it was, it made us realize what amazing people the massai are. After some hours on the road, we came to this very tranquil lake where we had the whole place to ourselves. We were there in search of lions but all we found was hippos and birds. It was a beautiful setting with thick, long green grass more than a meter high on one side of the vehicle and on the other side, the lake. It was great lion territory as they had the grass to hide in and only a track made from vehicles, seperating them from the waters edge, the place where every animal goes to drink. We enjoyed a picnic in the 4WD and having been in the car for 6 hours, were in desperate need of the ladies room but that was not going to happen here. It was not the place to be getting out of a vehicle, no matter how urgent it was. We hoped we had seen the last of the pot holes, as we held on. … … … … … … … … The Serengeti … … Bathing beauties! … Amboseli … … … … … … … … … Our first afternoon in the Mara, I was allowed to get out of the vehicle to capture these shots. We were well above this group of hippos and definitely not in any danger. The only danger I was in, was of not watching where I walked and a couple of times I got a little too close to the edge.  … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
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