0:02 Here's a fun fact that'll probably ruin
0:04 your childhood. Hippopotamuses kill more
0:06 people each year than lions, leopards,
0:09 and hyenas combined. We're talking
0:11 somewhere around 500 human deaths
0:13 annually. And that could be on the lower
0:15 end. And yet somehow, we all grew up
0:17 thinking these barrel-shaped giants were
0:19 the gentle vegetarians of the African
0:21 Rivers, right up there with the manatees
0:23 on the big but harmless scale. When in
0:24 reality, they're one of the freakiest
0:26 and most dangerous mammals in the entire
0:29 animal kingdom. You see, the real non-d
0:31 Disney version of the hippopotamus can
0:33 snap someone in half with a single bite,
0:36 having a bite for stronger than 99% of
0:38 all predators, will spray feces like a
0:40 poop propeller, seemingly sweats blood,
0:42 has one of the most violent societies
0:45 out there, oh, and uh can't swim. And
0:46 this is barely scratching the surface of
0:49 the absurdity that is the hippo. Now,
0:52 obviously, hippos are pretty big with
0:54 adult male hippos averaging around 3,300
0:57 lb or 1,500 kg, while some Absolute
1:02 units push more than 5,800 lb or 2,650
1:04 kg. That's roughly the weight of two
1:06 Honda Civics, all supported on four
1:07 stubby legs that look comically
1:09 undersized for the job. But despite what
1:11 appears to be a design flaw, hippos have
1:13 been reported to be able to sprint at
1:16 about 30 km/h or 19 mph if you piss one
1:18 off. And also do so with so much force
1:20 that they even reach a full airborne
1:22 stage with all limbs securely off the
1:24 ground mid-stride, which kind of seems
1:25 like it would be hilarious if you
1:28 weren't on the uh receiving end. Now,
1:31 Usain Bolt's top speed is about 44 km/h
1:34 or 27 mph, which is a decent bit faster,
1:36 but let me remind you, he is literally
1:39 the fastest human who has ever lived.
1:41 And that's his top speed. The average
1:44 person, you're lucky if you hit 24 km/h
1:47 or 14 mph in a dead sprint. So, if a
1:48 hippo decides you're a problem, you're
1:50 basically done for. And the reason those
1:53 stubby legs look so well stubby is
1:54 because they're basically columns of
1:56 bone designed to both support their
1:58 massive weight on land, fit their watery
1:59 lifestyle, and then of course be able to
2:02 withstand and generate explosive forces.
2:04 And so unsurprisingly, the skeleton of
2:06 the hippo, i.e. the bones themselves,
2:08 are unusually dense. So much so that
2:10 unlike almost every other aquatic or
2:12 semi-aquatic animal you can think of,
2:15 hippos cannot swim. In fact, if you put
2:16 them in deep water, they'll sink like
2:19 the fleshcovered boulders that they are.
2:21 in other words, drown. And so with that
2:23 said, you're probably thinking, "Well,
2:25 that's obviously false. I've seen them
2:27 swim in literal documentaries." And yes,
2:29 they can move in the water, but their
2:32 moving is rather literal, as instead of
2:33 swimming, they walk along the bottom of
2:35 rivers and lakes, sort of like
2:37 disgruntled underwater trolls, pushing
2:38 off the substrate and bouncing forward
2:40 in somewhat of a slow motion movement.
2:42 And researchers studying hippo
2:43 locomotion discover that their
2:45 underwater gate resembles a sort of
2:47 galloping with the dense bones providing
2:49 the necessary negative buoyancy to
2:50 maintain intermittent contact with the
2:52 riverbed. But funnily enough, they do
2:54 this with surprise and grace, moving in
2:56 sort of slow motion bounce, kind of like
2:58 watching someone in a moonwalk across
3:00 the moon, except this astronaut weighs
3:03 two tons and can and will absolutely
3:05 kill you if it gets the chance. And this
3:07 odd quote unquote swimming method is
3:09 partly why hippos have evolved to be
3:11 able to stay submerged for minutes at a
3:12 time. They're just chilling at the
3:14 bottom, likely just strolling around.
3:15 And then when they do need air, a reflex
3:17 will kick in and they push up towards
3:19 the surface. And that might sound
3:20 similar to what would happen if we were
3:21 chilling underwater, too. But this
3:23 reflex is likely at the very least
3:25 partially subconscious as hippos can in
3:28 fact sleep entirely underwater as their
3:29 bodies will automatically surface every
3:31 few minutes for a quick breath before
3:33 sinking back down all the while without
3:35 waking up which I can guarantee would
3:38 not work the same for you. Meanwhile,
3:40 their eyes, ears, and nostrils all sit
3:41 high in their skulls like biological
3:43 periscopes, letting them lurk with just
3:44 the top of their heads poking above the
3:46 waterline with everything else staying
3:48 hidden below. which is terrifying when
3:49 you realize that what looks like a
3:51 couple of bumps in the water might
3:52 actually be a two-tonon murder machine
3:55 just watching you. But this does beg the
3:57 question of why is it a murder machine
3:59 in the first place? I mean, hippos are
4:02 herbivores, right? And yes, they eat
4:03 grass, spend their nights grazing like
4:05 oversized lawnmowers, cropping about 40
4:08 kg or 88 lb of vegetation per session.
4:10 And yet, evolution gave them a mouth
4:11 that looks like it was designed for a
4:13 completely different job description.
4:15 With hippos, in fact, having the largest
4:17 teeth of any known terrestrial animal
4:19 ever when not including tusks, which are
4:21 not designed for in-mouth usage. And by
4:24 the way, even when considering the T-Rex
4:25 and to add on to that, the hippo can
4:28 open its mouth up to 110°, wide enough
4:30 to swallow well, a lot of things whole.
4:32 Then inside that gaping cavern, you'll
4:34 find the massive lower canines, which
4:37 can reach up to 50 cm or 20 in long, so
4:38 about the length of your forearm and
4:41 about twice the size of a T-Rex's tooth.
4:42 And these behemoths are curved like
4:44 sabers and grow continuously throughout
4:46 the hippo's life. All the while equipped
4:48 with a self-sharpening mechanism, which
4:50 works the other teeth grind against each
4:52 other. And speaking of those other
4:54 teeth, the upper insizers aren't much
4:57 better, reaching 40 cm or 1.2 ft in
4:59 length. And if having some 1T plus
5:01 sabers wasn't bad enough, these quote
5:03 unquote teeth sit in a jaw powered by
5:05 muscles capable of generating around
5:07 1,800 lb per square in of pressure,
5:10 which makes this one of, if not the
5:11 strongest bite force amongst all mammals
5:14 who walk on land and is absolutely
5:16 enough to crush many a poor fool. And
5:18 yet, even one of the strongest bites in
5:20 the planet is nothing compared to the
5:22 power of a F-111 Arvar. nor would a
5:24 clash between this amphibious giant and
5:27 the amphibious PT76 go well for it. So,
5:28 let's just say hippos should mess with
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6:56 now back to the video. And again, all of
6:58 this hardware, in other words, this
6:59 biological hydraulic press with sword
7:01 attachments, is installed in the face of
7:04 an animal whose primary diet is grass.
7:06 And it gets weirder. The jaw is so rigid
7:08 that hippos can't move them in a side to
7:11 side motion, making it hard to chew. So
7:12 instead, they rely on their flattened,
7:15 horny lips, not that type of horny, to
7:16 pick up the grasses, which are then
7:18 moved to the mers. It's quite
7:19 inefficient for processing plant matter.
7:22 And yet, here we are. And fun fact, it
7:23 is kind of similar to the extinct
7:25 desmosalia, which I just made a video on
7:27 on extinct zoo. So, go check that out if
7:28 you haven't seen it. And you know that
7:31 classic hippo yawning pose? Yeah, they
7:32 don't do that because they're tired.
7:34 That massive gape, the one that exposes
7:36 those massive teeth in that pink cavern
7:39 of a mouth is a threat display. The
7:41 hippo is basically showing you the goods
7:43 and letting you do the math. And
7:45 speaking of displays, despite the hippo
7:46 presumably looking like someone
7:48 crossbred a pig with a rhino with a
7:50 boulder, hippos are not related to pigs,
7:53 rhinos, or boulders. Not even close,
7:55 actually. In fact, the hippo's closest
7:57 living relatives are whales and
8:00 dolphins. Yeah, you heard that right.
8:02 Hippos and cotations, the group that
8:03 includes orcas, blue whales, and
8:05 skipper, all descend from a common
8:07 ancestor that lived around 60 million
8:10 years ago. Now the exact relationship is
8:12 debated as despite the first citations
8:14 appearing 50 million plus years ago, the
8:16 hippopotam day first appeared only about
8:18 15 million years ago. However, it turns
8:20 out while the citations went full marine
8:22 mode early on evolving into the sleek
8:24 intelligent creatures we know today, the
8:26 other group wasn't exactly a pure land
8:28 lover either with the ancestors of the
8:30 hippos believed to be the now extinct
8:32 group known as the enthrakers with some
8:33 members being at least partially
8:35 amphibious. And this shared origin
8:37 appears to explain much of the hippo's
8:39 weirdness. The dense bones that allowed
8:41 them to walk underwater. Well, early
8:43 sitations like Pacicetus had similar
8:45 adaptations. Pairlessness. Both groups
8:47 got it. Hippos even nurse underwater
8:49 like sitations do with calves sealing
8:50 their ears and nostrils of a special
8:52 reflex. It's kind of like hippos or
8:54 whales in progress with them just having
8:56 stopped halfway through the transition
8:57 and decided that they didn't really want
8:59 to deal with sharks. But what's
9:01 interesting is that despite these two
9:03 groups being again their own closest
9:05 relatives, it is thought that the vast
9:07 majority of hippos aquatic adaptations
9:09 do not come from their shared ancestry
9:11 or from the shared ancestor. So again,
9:13 while both groups developed similar
9:15 aquatic traits, skeletal adaptations,
9:16 hairlessness, certain underwater
9:18 communication abilities, which we'll get
9:20 to later, it is thought that these
9:21 features evolved independently through
9:24 convergent evolution. For example, one
9:26 study which looked at the pygmy hippo
9:27 genome revealed that gene loss related
9:29 to skin function to adapt for an aquatic
9:31 lifestyle occurred much later in hippos
9:33 than in whales. So the answer to their
9:35 seemingly shared features is more the
9:37 fact that their last common ancestor had
9:39 adaptations that created easier pathways
9:41 to the development of these aquatic
9:44 adaptations and thus the similarity. The
9:46 dwalitations have mainly left the
9:48 freshwater world behind. Hippos were
9:50 content to take their place with them
9:52 once spanning Europe, Africa, and Asia,
9:54 but are now just constrained, of course,
9:56 to Africa, which is quite ironic when
9:57 you realize that fossil evidence
9:59 suggests that the hippo lineage actually
10:01 evolved in Africa as well. Though, like
10:03 I alluded to, their interthier ancestors
10:04 have been around for considerably
10:06 longer. And the fossil record reveals
10:08 quite a few unusual things about this
10:10 group's evolutionary path. For example,
10:12 hippopotamus gorgops had eyes positioned
10:14 even higher on its skull than modern
10:16 species, a feature that suggests that it
10:17 might have spent even more time
10:19 submerged than modern ones. And fun
10:21 fact, this species actually coexisted
10:22 with early humans. And it was their
10:24 bones in particular that were actually
10:25 turned into the earliest bone tools
10:28 ever, being about 1.5 million years old.
10:30 Oh, and uh it was also bigger. But on
10:32 the flip side, other extinct hippo
10:33 species colonized islands in the
10:35 Mediterranean during periods when sea
10:37 levels were lower, including Cyprus, cit
10:39 on these islands, they underwent insular
10:41 dwarfism, evolving into species the
10:43 height of large dogs. So rather stark
10:44 contrast, their massive mainland
10:46 relatives. But here's an important part
10:48 to keep in mind. While their closest
10:50 relatives, or should I say whale of
10:52 their closest relatives, the citations
10:54 are all carnivorous, hippos have been
10:56 primarily herbivorous for a very, very
10:58 long time. And so all of these teeth,
11:00 jaw strength, and aggression that
11:02 evolved not for hunting prey, but rather
11:04 for fighting other hippos. Because in
11:06 hippo society, violence is the primary
11:08 language. And if you want to pass on
11:10 your genes, you'd better be ready to
11:13 throw down. A typical hippopod consists
11:14 of a dominant bull controlling a stretch
11:16 of river, a herm of females with their
11:18 calves, and then a few younger bachelor
11:19 males who are allowed to stick around as
11:21 long as they don't get any ideas. And
11:22 during the day, it seems like they all
11:24 lounge together in the water. But in
11:25 reality, these groups are highly
11:28 stratified by gender and rank. With the
11:29 females hanging with the females, the
11:31 bachelors with the other bachelors, and
11:34 the bull all by himself. But remember,
11:36 hippo society is not built on peace,
11:38 affection, or cooperation. It's built on
11:40 territorial enforcement, and the
11:42 constant threat of violence. And so, a
11:44 dominant male keeps a tight terrain on
11:45 his territory, and any rival who wanders
11:47 into a stretch of river gets a face full
11:50 of teeth. And when a spat does happen,
11:51 hippos will generally first challenge
11:52 each other through opening their mouths
11:54 as wide as possible and sizing each
11:56 other up. This then usually proceeds and
11:58 escalates to actual combat whereby the
12:00 males will affectionately tusk each
12:02 other in the face as well as swing their
12:04 heads like maces, biting and generally
12:06 trying to inflict destruction upon their
12:07 rival with the end result being the
12:09 loser retreating and the winner getting
12:11 the territory into all the girls. And
12:13 the result of said fight can be so
12:14 severe that the losing bulls have been
12:16 observed being killed by groups of
12:18 crocodiles due to its injuries,
12:20 apparently being weakened to such a
12:22 degree. So with all this said, you'd
12:23 probably think this violence and
12:25 hierarchy extends to every aspect of
12:27 their life. But oddly on land, all of
12:29 this aggression just seems to evaporate,
12:31 at least to each other. You see, when
12:33 hippos leave the water to graze at
12:34 night, they generally do so
12:35 independently, and males do not
12:37 establish or extend territory onto land.
12:39 So theoretically, the same two males who
12:40 were trying to murder each other just
12:42 hours before might walk past each other
12:44 on land without so much as a sideways
12:46 glance. But then when the dawn comes and
12:48 they head back to the water, boom, game
12:51 of river continues. Now, unlike the
12:53 males, female hippos will actually
12:55 sometimes work together, forming loose
12:56 nurseries and cooperating to protect
12:58 calves from threats. You see, they'll
13:00 position themselves collectively between
13:01 potential danger and the young, and
13:03 they've even been observed helping with
13:05 raising the young that is not theirs.
13:07 Males on the other hand offer exactly
13:10 zero parental care. In fact, not only do
13:12 they give zero, they sometimes give
13:14 negative with infanticide having been
13:15 observed in areas where hippos become
13:17 overpop populated or after a habitat
13:19 shrinks where then I guess the male kind
13:21 of goes this town ain't big enough for
13:24 the two of us. So yeah, it was basically
13:25 a floating dictatorship punctuated by
13:27 grazing breaks. But if you thought the
13:29 social violence was strange, wait until
13:31 you hear about how these guys actually
13:33 communicate and mark their territory.
13:34 Because they have taken the concept of
13:38 leaving your mark to a whole new level,
13:39 turning it into something which I can
13:41 only refer to as a modern performance
13:42 art piece, which is called muck
13:44 spreading and involves a tailor
13:47 propeller and uh lots of feces. Now,
13:48 it's not exactly known why hippos do
13:50 this, but there is the idea that it's
13:51 potentially a way for a hippo to find
13:53 his way back to the water. I guess they
13:55 never heard of breadcrumbs. And so when
13:57 a hippo wants to leave a trail or maybe
13:59 just announce his presence on land, he
14:00 doesn't just leave a quote unquote
14:02 deposit and walk away like a civilized
14:04 creature. Oh no. Instead, he flicks his
14:06 tail rapidly like a helicopter rotor and
14:08 sprays a slurry of feces in a wide arc
14:10 around the landscape. And when I say in
14:12 a wide arc, I mean a wide ark. We're
14:14 talking about a literal poop tornado
14:16 here. A fecal cyclone, if you will, that
14:18 paints the land with a lovely array of
14:20 scent molecules and partially digested
14:22 plant matter. And the tail can move at
14:23 such remarkable speeds during this
14:25 display that in some ways it almost
14:27 looks like an anime fight sequence. Just
14:28 the more poop and a little bit less
14:30 yelling. But funny enough, talking about
14:32 yelling, hippos are surprisingly loud.
14:35 Their signature call is the weeze honk,
14:36 which is the kind of noise you'd expect
14:38 from a broken accordion being attacked
14:40 by a tuba. And it can reach a whopping
14:42 115 dB, which is loud enough to cause
14:44 hearing damage at close range. And
14:46 hippos use this call for possibly a
14:48 number of reasons. and they're able to
14:49 identify those they are familiar with
14:51 and strangers with them reacting more
14:53 visibly to calls they never heard
14:55 before. But here's the really odd part.
14:58 Hippos can vocalize both above and below
15:00 water at the same time with individuals
15:02 then also responding both above and
15:03 below the water. And this poses a
15:05 interesting question which is how can
15:07 they hear this or at least in a
15:09 distinguishable way as water usually
15:11 messes with auditory perception at least
15:13 with how most mammal ears are designed.
15:14 And it turns out there might be two
15:16 different solutions at play here. One is
15:18 that hippos can fold their ears back to
15:19 seal off the internal canals,
15:21 potentially reducing the distortion in
15:23 the water. But this then poses the
15:24 additional challenge of making the ears
15:26 less sensitive to the sound overall. And
15:28 so at least one scientist, William
15:30 Barlo, believes that hippos might be
15:32 hearing effectively underwater, not
15:34 through their ears, but rather their
15:36 jaw. Sounds weird, I know, but there's
15:38 actually precedent for this. And can you
15:40 guess in who? Their closest cousins, the
15:43 citations. The idea is that they might
15:44 be receiving input to their inner ear
15:46 through both their actual ears and then
15:48 also through resonance in the jaw. And
15:50 researchers have documented multiple
15:51 different types of underwater
15:53 vocalizations which seem to support the
15:54 complexity of the system. There is even
15:56 the idea that hippos might use
15:58 rudimentary echolocation underwater,
16:00 essentially clicking to help maintain
16:02 awareness in their murky environments.
16:04 Though I will say this idea is still
16:06 being tested. But regardless, there is
16:08 one thing that's clear. Hippos spend a
16:11 lot of time in the water with research
16:13 showing they spend approximately 77% of
16:15 their social time underwater. And one
16:16 thing that certainly reflects that is
16:18 their skin being adapted for constant
16:20 submersion. And given that they spend
16:22 considerably time partially submerged or
16:24 lounging in the shallows as well, you'd
16:26 think that when they did surface, they'd
16:28 be prone to sunburns and skin damage due
16:30 to the intense African sun. And you'd be
16:32 right thinking this, except evolution
16:34 gave hippos their own built-in solution.
16:36 one that almost mirrors something we do
16:39 one for one kind of. You see, hippos
16:40 secrete a reddish orange fluid from
16:42 specialized subdermal glands distributed
16:44 across their bodies. And early humans
16:46 saw the secretion and genuinely thought
16:48 that hippos are bleeding leading to all
16:49 kinds of explanations and strangely
16:51 medical practices with bloodletting in
16:53 Egypt thought to have come from this
16:55 observation. However, in reality, they
16:57 were witnessing secretion of a mixture
17:00 of two acids, hipposidoric acid and
17:02 norhippedic acid. And together they beat
17:04 up on the hippo's skin like oil,
17:05 creating a glossy sheen that looks
17:07 somewhat unsettling if you don't know
17:08 what you're looking at. And despite this
17:10 seemingly being a weapon of terror,
17:12 because I mean, who wants to mess with
17:13 someone sweating blood? There's actually
17:15 a more intuitive reason for it. This
17:17 quote unquote blood sweat is actually a
17:19 multi-purpose biochemical cocktail.
17:22 First, it absorbs ultraviolet light
17:23 across a broad spectrum, essentially
17:25 functioning as a natural sunscreen,
17:27 absorbing UV radiation effectively and
17:29 preventing cellular damage from the sun.
17:31 Second, both pigments have powerful
17:33 antibiotic properties that inhibit
17:34 bacterial growth with it being
17:36 particularly effective against certain
17:39 strains of bacteria. So even when hippos
17:40 sustain injuries and fights, their
17:42 wounds more seldomly develop infections.
17:44 Their red body lotion just coats
17:45 everything and kills the wouldbe
17:47 pathogens. So essentially, hippos
17:49 produce their own sunscreen and
17:51 antiseptic, all in one convenient
17:52 solution. And if you thought hippos are
17:54 weird on the outside, they're just as
17:56 bizarre on the inside with their
17:58 reproductive anatomy being um
18:00 questionable. You see, male hippos have
18:02 testicles that never descend and have no
18:05 scrotum, meaning they sit internally or
18:07 partially internally. And even the penis
18:09 retracts entirely into the body when not
18:12 um in use. Interestingly though, this
18:14 internal male genitalia is actually a
18:16 trait shared by almost all truly aquatic
18:17 mammals thought to have evolved to
18:19 reduce drag among other things.
18:21 Meanwhile, female hippos have the oddity
18:24 of two large sacks inside the vaginal
18:25 tract. And while the exact function is
18:27 still being studied, unlike the male
18:29 adaptations, this trait seems to be
18:30 unique and not share to mock their
18:32 marine cousins. But despite all this
18:34 anatomical weirdness, they manage to do
18:37 the dirty just fine. A female gestates
18:38 for about 8 months, which is roughly
18:40 similar to humans, and then typically
18:42 gives birth in shallow water or
18:43 occasionally on land. And the calfs
18:45 themselves come out already quite hefty,
18:47 weighing about 50 kg on average, and
18:50 measuring over a meter or 3 ft long. So,
18:52 think roughly the size of a big dog, but
18:54 considerably heavier. And like I
18:55 mentioned before, the mothers are
18:57 insanely protective. In deep water,
18:59 they'll carry the babies on their backs,
19:01 and they also leave the pod for about 2
19:02 weeks until the calf is strong enough to
19:04 keep up. And then once they do rejoin,
19:06 calves often huddle together in
19:08 nurseries where they can play together,
19:10 while the adult females act as guards.
19:12 And let's just say, may the heavens show
19:14 mercy on you if you try to threaten set
19:16 group as multiple oneplus ton mothers
19:18 will rush to defend the young, forming
19:20 protective wall of flesh, tusks, and
19:22 likely murder. And if somehow a calf
19:24 dies, mothers have been observed
19:25 guarding the body of their dead young
19:27 for quite some time, defending the
19:29 corpse from scavengers and likely the
19:31 grip of the grim reaper if she could.
19:33 But with all these adaptations, the
19:35 bulk, the violence, the defensiveness,
19:36 you might be wondering what actually
19:38 eats a hippo. And the answer is
19:40 basically nothing. Well, at least not
19:43 regularly. Adult hippos rarely fall prey
19:45 to predation. Lions will occasionally be
19:46 reported killing them out of the water,
19:48 but it's rare. and crocodiles will
19:50 generally go out of their way to avoid
19:52 them in the water. But that being said,
19:54 large males have been documented preying
19:56 on subad adults and perhaps even adult
19:58 females along with the very rare case of
20:00 an injured male being taken after a
20:02 fight by a group of crocs. But when I
20:04 say rare, I mean rare. And really, the
20:06 hippo is the one who truly sits at the
20:08 top of the freshwater food chain. And
20:10 pretty much nothing can or does
20:12 challenge that position. But forget
20:14 worrying about hippos. It's us who
20:16 should really be worried because hippos
20:18 kill upwards of 500 people every year,
20:20 which is more than lions, by the way.
20:22 Now, obviously, hippos don't hunt
20:23 humans, per se. They're not really
20:25 interested in eating us, but they're
20:26 incredibly territorial and easily
20:28 startled, which is a dangerous
20:29 combination when you're a two-tonon
20:31 flesh boulder with a temper to make a
20:33 Chihuahua look docile. What usually
20:35 happens is one of two things. Like I
20:37 mentioned before, hippos graze at night,
20:39 walking several kilometers from water to
20:41 find food. And so this will sometimes
20:43 put them in proximity with people. And
20:45 if a hippo sees said people, panics, and
20:47 perceives them as a threat, bad things
20:49 are in high probability of occurring.
20:52 Remember that 30 km sprint? Yeah, you're
20:54 screwed. And so if the hippo charges and
20:56 bowls you over, the impact alone has the
20:58 potential for being fatal. I mean, it's
21:00 like being hit by a small car. But um
21:02 those tus then turn a dicey situation
21:04 into an absolutely doomed one. And
21:06 remember, my friends, this is just the
21:08 land portion. The thing is, hippos are
21:10 even more aggressive in the water. So,
21:12 you could just be paddling along in a
21:14 canoe, minding your own business, and a
21:16 hippo could decide it particularly had a
21:17 bone to pick with you. And by the time
21:19 you realize what's happening, it's
21:21 likely too late. Even experienced guides
21:23 in Africa treat hippos with tremendous
21:25 caution because if you don't, these
21:27 moody blubber boulders can spell your
21:30 doom. In fact, in 2014 in Niger, a boat
21:33 was capsized by a hippo and 13 people
21:35 were killed outright. And at this point,
21:37 I do have to admit one thing, which is
21:38 that I haven't been totally upfront with
21:40 you. And what I mean is that while we
21:42 call hippos herbivores, which they are,
21:44 they do occasionally like a good umami
21:47 snack. In other words, meat. Let me be
21:48 clear, though. This isn't exactly
21:50 common. In the vast majority of a
21:53 hippo's diet, over 99% is plant matter,
21:54 and they're not anatomically adapted for
21:56 eating meat in any meaningful way. But
21:58 there are enough documented cases to
21:59 prove that when push comes to shove,
22:02 hippos are not morally opposed to a good
22:03 steak. with researchers having filmed
22:05 hippos Nong and Kerrion. And in one
22:07 particularly interesting case from the
22:09 '90s, a hippo had been observed killing
22:11 an impala and then freaking eating it.
22:13 And then just as the cherry on top,
22:14 there's also documented evidence of
22:16 cannibalism. But all these behaviors is
22:18 likely due to a lack of nutrients,
22:20 potentially phosphorus, which thus makes
22:22 them hungry for meat and bones. And
22:24 this, by the way, is also the cause
22:26 behind osteopagy or bone eating, which
22:29 is sometimes observed among deer, cows,
22:30 and other herbivorous animals. Or
22:32 perhaps again, they just don't have
22:34 strong feelings about dietary categories
22:36 and will eat whatever is available when
22:38 they're hungry. Either way though, it's
22:39 a stark reminder that those jaws and
22:41 tusks, which evolved for fighting other
22:43 hippos, are absolutely more than capable
22:45 of tearing through flesh. And I
22:46 personally would not want to test the
22:48 theory that they're purely herbivorous
22:51 on a hungry hippo. But you do you. But
22:53 with all of this said, these guys aren't
22:55 just big, scary, sometimes eating
22:56 monsters. And despite being
22:58 understandably terrifying, hippos are
23:00 actually critical to the ecosystems they
23:02 inhabit. They're what ecologists call
23:04 ecosystem engineers, meaning their
23:06 presence fundamentally shapes the
23:07 environment around them in ways that
23:09 benefit and affect countless other
23:11 species. Every night as the hippos leave
23:13 the water and walk km inland to graze,
23:15 they consume about 3% of their body
23:17 weight and vegetation. And then they
23:19 return to the waters before dawn, often
23:21 using the same trails night after night.
23:23 And then once back in the water, they
23:24 spend their day doing what hippos do,
23:27 lounging, biting, and defecating. And
23:29 here's the key part. All that dung and
23:30 urine, which contains nutrients from the
23:32 terrestrial plants they ate, gets
23:34 deposited directly into the river,
23:36 serving as tasty food for all the plants
23:38 and smaller organisms. And let me tell
23:40 you, this is not a small amount of
23:42 fertilizer. As one study revealed that
23:46 hippos deposited an estimated 8,500 kg
23:48 of organic matter into the Mar River
23:50 system daily. To put that into
23:51 perspective, that's roughly the weight
23:54 of two adult elephants worth of organic
23:55 material being transported from
23:58 terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems every
24:00 single day. And this massive input helps
24:03 directly or indirectly feed insects and
24:04 small fish, which in turn feed larger
24:06 fish. And those fish support everything
24:09 from crocodiles to king fishers to human
24:11 fishers. But it's not just about the
24:13 poop. Hippot trails worn into the
24:14 landscape over their daily feeding can
24:16 divert the path of swamps and even
24:18 channels. And so unsurprisingly, a
24:21 review in 2023 suggested that the hippo
24:23 is potentially Africa's most influential
24:25 mega herbivore in terms of ecosystem
24:27 impact with the takeaway being that
24:29 hippos, despite all their violence and
24:31 weirdness, are actually crucial
24:33 enriching both terrestrial and aquatic
24:35 ecosystems. So yes, they're dangerous,
24:37 but they're also irreplaceable. But
24:38 there is some complications to this,
24:40 which is that research has also revealed
24:42 how changing water patterns can
24:44 fundamentally alter hippo's ecological
24:47 role. In most untouched quote unquote
24:49 natural conditions, hippodung provides
24:51 beneficial nutrients to rivers. But as
24:53 humans alter the natural flow of rivers
24:55 or droughts occur, these same nutrients
24:58 can cause utrification, meaning
25:00 excessive nutrient richness, which then
25:02 causes dense algae growth, which in turn
25:04 causes the lovely phenomena known as
25:07 anoxia. In other words, oxygen
25:09 depletion. And this obviously isn't
25:11 great for the creatures that rely on set
25:13 oxygen, such as those fish I mentioned
25:15 earlier. And this doesn't just affect
25:17 fish, but also people directly, as
25:19 studies estimate that hippoinduced toxic
25:21 events could reduce fish populations by
25:24 up to 41%. But overall, they are
25:26 certainly an important positive driver
25:28 of ecosystem enrichment. But
25:29 unfortunately, despite their clear
25:31 importance to keeping the ecosystems
25:33 healthy, they are listed as vulnerable
25:35 by the IUCN with habitat loss, poaching
25:37 for meat and ivory, and other conflict
25:39 with humans having all taken their toll.
25:41 And in some areas, they are less than 5%
25:44 of what they used to be in the 70s.
25:46 However, in perhaps the oddest of
25:48 twists, we have the opposite problem on
25:49 a completely different continent. You
25:52 see, in Colombia, hippos are thriving.
25:54 So much so, in fact, that they're now
25:56 considered an invasive species. And the
25:57 government is desperately trying to
26:00 figure out what to do about them. And
26:02 that in itself is crazy enough. But the
26:04 how they got there part is even crazier.
26:07 And it all starts with Pablo Escobar.
26:08 You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. The
26:10 Kingpin imported four hippos to his
26:12 private estate, Hassienda Napouolis.
26:15 Why? Because why not? Apparently, he
26:16 thought a private zoo featuring African
26:18 megapana would be a fun addition to his
26:20 cocaine empire. And the hippos lived on
26:21 the property were largely left to their
26:25 own devices. Then in 1993, Escobar was
26:27 killed and his estate was abandoned,
26:28 leading to Colombian authorities
26:30 relocating most of his exotic animals.
26:32 But moving the hippos, that seemed
26:34 unnecessary and perhaps dangerous. But
26:37 regardless, famous last words if I've
26:38 ever seen some. And so they left the
26:40 four to do their own thing, likely
26:41 assuming they wouldn't cause much
26:43 trouble. But boy oh boy, were they in
26:46 for a treat. Now, obviously, hippos, who
26:48 have no real natural predators in their
26:50 native ranges, would obviously have less
26:52 reason to fear predators in Colombia.
26:54 having exactly zero of them. And so
26:56 finding the climate perfectly to their
26:58 liking, they did what hippos do best,
27:01 pooped and reproduced a lot. And by the
27:03 2000s, the original four had become over
27:06 a dozen. And by 2019, estimates put the
27:08 population at around 100 individuals.
27:11 And by 2023, those four hippos had
27:14 reached a population of 215. And current
27:15 models suggest that without
27:17 intervention, Colombia could have over a
27:19 thousand hippos by 2050. Let that sink
27:22 in for a second. No pun intended. A
27:24 continent that has never had hippos has
27:26 no animals who evolved alongside hippos
27:28 now has a rapidly growing population of
27:30 one of Africa's most dangerous animals.
27:32 And it seems like no one knows what to
27:34 do about it. The hippos have dispersed
27:36 across the Magdalena River area, moving
27:38 into lakes and rivers throughout the
27:39 region. They're also displaying the same
27:41 behaviors they do in their native range,
27:42 grazing at night, marking the territory
27:44 with dung, and attacking literally
27:46 anything they perceive as a threat. with
27:47 at least multiple attacks on humans
27:49 having been reported. And this might not
27:51 just be a disaster for humans, but also
27:53 for the ecosystem as a whole. As like
27:55 we've established, hippos produce
27:57 predigious amounts of dung. And while
27:59 that's generally beneficial for African
28:01 rivers, the animals there evolved with
28:04 hippos. And as such, Colombian waterways
28:05 might not be equipped to handle it with
28:07 a 2020 study reporting increased levels
28:09 of cyanobacteria, which can cause
28:12 algolooms and thus enoxia. On the flip
28:14 side though, some conservationists have
28:16 suggested there might actually be a
28:17 positive effect with the hippos
28:19 essentially serving the same ecological
28:22 role that the now extinct toxons used to
28:24 play in the region who went extinct due
28:26 to humans around 12,000 years ago. But
28:28 regardless of good or bad, the Colombian
28:29 government is aware of the potential
28:31 threat and have tried various approaches
28:33 to control them. Sterilization programs
28:35 have castrated males, but the procedure
28:38 costs nearly $50,000 per animal and is
28:39 dangerous, logistically challenging to
28:42 say the least. And so at this point you
28:43 might be thinking why not just call
28:45 them. Well some officials had the exact
28:47 same idea but to put it lightly this
28:50 proved particularly toxic politically so
28:53 that is. In 2009 authorities shot a
28:55 hippo named Pepe. And let's just say
28:57 public outcry was so intense that coing
28:59 was taken off the table indefinitely.
29:02 And so as of 2023 Colombia has committed
29:04 to sterilizing 40 hippos annually as
29:05 well as investigating deportation to
29:07 countries like India and Mexico. But
29:09 even if that is successful, hippos will
29:11 remain on the Colombian landscape for
29:14 many years to come. So overall, you've
29:15 got this surreal situation where a
29:17 species that's vulnerable and declining
29:19 in its native range is thriving and is
29:21 somewhat of an invasive pest in South
29:23 America. And neither problem has a good
29:25 solution. In Africa, conservationists
29:26 are fighting to save hippos, while in
29:28 Colombia, they're fighting to contain
29:29 them, which I don't know about you, but
29:31 in my opinion fits the contradiction
29:34 that are hippos perfectly. Thanks for
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