Webby Wanda's Science Facts

HOW TO DRAW A CARTOON HIPPO

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	BY ALPHABETICAL ORDER Webby Wanda Lessons Kids Art Lessons Page One BY ANIMAL NAMES Animal Drawing Lessons Button PETS AND FARM ANIMALS Pets and Farm Animals AQUATIC AND MARINE LIFE Aquatic and Marine Life Drawing lessons button FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Webby Wanda's Fruit and Vegetable Drawing Lessons VEHICLES Webby Wanda's Vehicle Drawing Lessons HOLIDAYS HALLOWEEN Halloween Drawing Lesson Button	How to Draw a Cartoon Hippo, Hippopotamus Click here or on the hippo to go to "How to draw a Hippo !		Thank you for visiting my Arts and Crafts web site! I would be very grateful if you would please give the gift of creativity, and shop for your gifts at the stores on my site. You may also make a donation, also I am the voice over artist on my animations. Click here to listen to all of my voice over characters and have fun.:0) Thank you again! With Love, Wanda
		How to Draw a Cartoon Hippo, Hippopotamus VIDEO LESSON coming soon!
		FAST FACTS ABOUT HIPPOS The scientific name for the common hippo is Hippopotamus amphibious. MOTHER HIPPOS AND THEIR BABIES Female hippos are able to have babies at about seven years old. Baby hippos are born underwater. They can swim almost from the moment they're born. Baby hippos are called calves. They often nurse underwater. Mother hippos usually give birth in the spring or fall. Mother hippos have only one baby at a time. A baby hippos is called a calf. Young hippos llve near their mothers until they are about 8 years old. Mother hippos go to quiet places to have babies. They often give birth in shallow spots in lakes or rivers. Sometimes baby hippos are born underwater. The hippo baby calf rises quickly to the surface to take its first breath. Newborn baby hippos are bright pink. Baby hippos are very big. They are almost 3 feet long at birth. They weigh between 60 and 100 pounds. A hippo baby calf can swim and walk in just minutes after its born. But must stay close to its mother. Hippobaby calves drink their mothers' milk. Baby hippos need lots of milk so they can grow. The calf grows very fast. It can gain more than 1 pound a day. After about eight months, the baby hippo learns to eat grass. Mother hippos keep their babies safe. They watch their calves closely. A baby hippo walks close to its mother's neck. That way, the mother hippo can see her baby. In the water, a baby hippo must swim close to its mother's side. If the mother stops, the calf must stop. Sometimes the mother hippo leaves teh water to find some grass to eat. The baby hippos follow right behind her. Lions and crocodiles hunt baby hippos. But mother hippos ar fierce fighters. Their jaws are powerful enough to bite a crocodile in half!	THE FUTURE OF HIPPOS Many zoos in the United States have hippos so you can see them up close. But it is getting harder to see hippos in the wild areas of Africa. More and more people are moving into areas where hippos live. There are few places left for hippos to go. Some people hunt hippos. Many hunters want hippo teeth. The hunters make money by selling teeth. Others hunt hippos because the big animals eat farmers' crops. There are fewer than 200,000 wild hippos left in Africa. Someday hippos may become endangered. Some kinds of wild hippos have already died out forever. Animals that have died out forever are extinct. Scientits want to learn how to keep hippos safe. They study how hippos live. Learning about hippos is important. By learning about hippos, you can help make sure that these amazing animals stay around for years and generations in the future. The group of hippos is led by one large male. The other members are females, their young, and a few young adult males. The leader of the group keeps control of his mating territory by fighting off rivals. When a male hippo in the group challenges him, the leader opens his enormous mouth, revealing long canines. Often the display is enough to make the challenging hippopotamus back off. Sometimes, however, hippos fight aggressively, leading to deep wounds and sometimes even death. The family group of hippos spends most of the day in the water. Staying submerged helps a hippo stay cool in the hot, tropical climate where it lives. The hippo's nose, ears, and eyes are on the top of its head, and they protrude from the water while the rest of its head and its body lie beneath the surface. That way a hippo can breathe, see, and hear even while its body is submerged. When a hippo sinks completely underwater, its nose and ears automatically close so that no water seeps in. Hippos are excellent swimmers and can hold their breath for about five minutes. They can even walk along the bottoms of rivers and lakes. At dusk, hippos leave their watery daytime spot, lumber onto land, and walk as far as 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the water to graze on short grasses, their main food. Grazing until dawn, a hippo may eat up to 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of grass a night. They avoid the heat of the sun by returning to a river or lake before sunrise. Hippopotamus comes from two Greek words that mean river horse. Hippos' toes are webbed, which helps them paddle through the water. Hippopotamuses live in rivers and lakes in central and southern Africa. A hippo's tail is about 22 inches (56 centimeters) long. A hippo is 12 to 15 feet (4 to 5 meters) long and weighs from 5,000 to 8,000 pounds (2,300 to 3,600 kilograms). Two tusks, or canine teeth, in the hippo's lower jaw can grow more than a foot (30 centimeters) long. Hippos eat only vegetation—grasses and water plants. Nutrients from the hippos' dung provide food for microorganisms, which in turn are food for fish. Hippos can live to be more than 40 years old in the wild. Hippopotamuses are aggressive, do not fear humans, and are considered one of Africa's more dangerous animals. Lions, crocodiles, leopards, hyenas, and wild dogs often kill baby hippos, but adult hippos are rarely attacked. People used to think that hippos sweat blood. Actually, hippos' sweat has an oily red pigment in it—not blood. The only land animals larger than hippos are elephants and rhinoceroses. Reference: Hippos, Early Bird Nature Book, Conrad J. Storad http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ Text by Catherine D. Hughes




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