The mouth is half a metre wide and can gape 150° to show the teeth. Colour is grayish brown, with pinkish underparts. The skin is 5 cm (2 inches) thick on the flanks but thinner elsewhere and nearly hairless. In terms of physical size, males are the larger sex, weighing roughly 30 percent more than females. Males are usually 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) long, stand 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall, and weigh 3,200 kg (3.5 tons). The hippopotamus has a bulky body on stumpy legs, an enormous head, a short tail, and four toes on each foot. Once ranging over the entire continent and beyond, hippopotamuses (or “hippos”) now live in eastern, central, and parts of southern Africa. Because of their great size and aquatic habits, they are safe from most predators but human beings, who have long valued their hide, meat, and ivory and at times have resented them for ruining crops. Hippopotamuses are often seen basking on the banks or sleeping in the waters of rivers, lakes, and swamps next to grasslands. Hippopotamus is Greek for “river horse,” and the animal has been known since ancient times. Often considered to be the second largest land animal (after the elephant), the hippopotamus is comparable in size and weight to the white rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum) and the Indian rhinoceros ( Rhinoceros unicornis). Hippopotamus, ( Hippopotamus amphibius), also called hippo or water horse, amphibious African ungulate mammal. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.

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Not the hippopotamus