Habitat

Hippos are amphibious animals. They will be found grazing on short grasslands in sub-Saharan Africa at night and wallowing their bulky, tubular bodies in the nearby lakes and wetlands by day. Even at the Milwaukee County Zoo, they enjoy wallowing and dining at the same time.

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They like to lie around or inside big lakes, rotten meadows or in the rivers that have a slow current and low borders. Hippos can live on the mountains as long as the temperature of the water is not lower than 20C or hotter than 35C.

In places where hippos have been confined to certain parks, they have overpopulated and eaten so much of the grass that they have eroded the land and caused the disappearance of certain grasses. Two hippo species are found in Africa. The large hippo //(Hippopotamus amphibius)//, found in East Africa, occurs south of the Sahara. This social, group-living mammal is so numerous in some areas that "cropping" schemes are used to control populations that have become larger than the habitat can sustain. The other, much smaller (440 to 605 pounds) species of hippo is the pygmy hippopotamus (//Choeropsis liberiensis//). Pygmy hippos are found in very restricted ranges in West Africa. Unlike the aggressive, pugnacious hippo, the pygmy hippopotamus is a shy, solitary forest dweller. It is rare that this animal is seen by man. [|pygmy hippopotamus]