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Show You Care This Valentine's Day:
Adopt a Hippo and Support Conservation

""Adopt a Nile Hippo!

"I Love You!"
Searching for a Valentine's Day gift for that very special person—something that will bring a big smile, satisfy a yen for chocolate, and demonstrate your thoughtfulness and concern for wildlife conservation? Impossible? Not if you choose the $65 Adopt a Hippo package, available only during January and February.

Hip Hip Hippo Hooray!
Happy Valentine's Day!

The $65 special package includes an incredibly cute and cuddly ten-inch hippo floppy toy, a small gift box of world-famous Ghirardelli assorted chocolate squares, a 6 x 8-inch photo of the Zoo's Nile hippopotamus, a fact sheet about this amazing animal, and a 12-month subscription to our members-only newsletter. We'll even include a personalized gift card with your order. Your Valentine's Day gift will help support exhibit improvement, equipment, and medical care for Happy, the Zoo's male hippo, as well as for the 2,600 other animals that live at the National Zoo and its Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal Virginia.

Hippos—Big, Powerful, and Fast
Male Nile hippos grow up to 15 feet long and weigh up to 8,000 pounds. Hippos are territorial and will attack one another and other creaturesincluding peopleto hold their ground. They are powerful and surprisingly fast. While Nile hippos are usually sluggish on land, they can gallop at up to 30 miles per hour.

Bulky and barrel-shaped, Nile hippos may look clumsy, but they are superbly adapted to their mixed terrestrial and aquatic lifestyle. Their eyes, ears, and nostrils sit on top of their heads, perfect for living in the water, and they have wide snouts and thick lips for grazing grasses on land. Hippos vary from brown to grayish purple, with pink underbellies and skin creases. Their skin consists of a thick layer (up to 1 3/4 inches) covered by a thin epidermis that is protected by a red excretion that serves as sunscreen and probably as a disinfectant. Hippos are virtually hairless, with bristles only on their noses, ears, and tails. Nile hippos can live up to 45 years in the wild, and often a few years longer in zoos.
Nile hippos beached out near the Masai River in Tanzania. Hippos' preferred habitat is an area with deep, permanent water adjacent to reedbeds and grassland. Their range may expand during the rainy season when temporary pools are available. Habitat protection is essential to ensure this species a viable future.

A Keystone Species at Risk
Only 100 years ago, hippos lived in Africa in great numbers, covering a large range. There were hippos all along the Nile. Today an estimated 150,000 wild hippos live in sub-Saharan Africa. They inhabit rivers, lakes, and wetlands from western African countries like Guinea east to Ethiopia and south to northeastern South Africa. Nile hippos remain common in many parks throughout their range, but outside of these protected areas, populations have declined. A subspecies limited to Chad and Nigeria is listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Animals.

Hunting (including shooting animals for their teeth) and habitat loss have combined to reduce many populations. In some areas, hippos confined to certain parks have overpopulated these habitats, causing erosion and the disappearance of certain grasses. Wetland protection, pollution control, and hunting restrictions are important to ensure a secure future for these leviathans.

Some Cool Hippo Facts:
  • Male Nile hippos square off at territorial boundaries and perform a messy ritual: They turn backside to backside and shower each other in urine and feces—broadcast with the help of their paddling tails—before walking away from each other.
  • Because males pose a threat to youngsters, female hippos attack males that wander too close. If a female begins to attack a male, he lies down and acts submissively to show that he means no harm.
  • Research suggests that hippos share a common ancestor with modern dolphins and whales. The clicking sounds that they emit underwater are similar to those made by these aquatic relatives. It's interesting that groups of dolphins, whales, and hippos are called "pods."
  • Female hippos give birth and nurse their young in water.
  • Hippos haul out of the water periodically during daylight hours to sunbathe on a beach. Experts suspect that the sun's warmth aids in digestion.
  • Adult hippos normally stay underwater for three to five minutes, but can stay submerged for half an hour. Sleeping hippos can rise automatically to the water's surface to breathe.
  • Hippos are mainly herbivores but sometimes will eat carrion if available.
  • Hippos are a keystone species, transferring nutrients from the land to an aquatic environment. Their dung supplies food for a number of invertebrate species on which fish feed. Fish also consume their dung and then are eaten by crocodiles.
  • Ongoing research suggests that hippos may communicate amphibiously. They appear able to hear sounds made above the water when submerged, and hear sounds made below the water when they are on the surface. Try doing that the next time you’re in a swimming pool.
Nile Hippo at the National Zoo

The Zoo has one Nile hippo—a 23-year-old male named Happy. Every day, he eats 40 pounds of hay, 14 pounds of herbivore pellets, and two pounds of kale. You can see this fascinating giant in the Elephant House or in his pool directly outside. While you're here, be sure to check out his pygmy hippopotamus cousin in a nearby exhibit.

open-mouth hippo
Did you know that the National Zoo's male hippo receives annual dental care to trim his teeth?

Adopt a Nile Hippo and Help Conservation
The Nile hippo is one of the 33 species you can adopt through FONZ’s Adopt a Species program.

""Adopt a Nile Hippo!

    Because your contribution is dedicated directly to animal care, you truly make a difference!

    Photos by Jessie Cohen/NZP and Mas Kuwana

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