Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) is derived from the ancient Greek "hippos" and "potamus" which means "horse of the river". Indeed, this is misleading, as they have no resemblance of or relation with horses. They look more similar to pigs, but are not related to those either. Surprisingly their closest living relative is the whale.
Hippoptamuses do live close to water, commonly rivers, spending most of their time in water. They need to do so, to relief themselves of their weight and to wet their skin, that otherwise gets chapped. However their food mainly consists of grass, they seldom eat water plants.

Even tough they do not look like it, they only have a thin layer of fat, the skin on the other hand is very thick. Therefore hippos are heavier than water and easily sink to the ground. They are not really capable of swimming, thus they move under water by walking on the ground. They can dive for some minutes, after which they have to return to the surface shortly, to breath. When sleeping they do not have to wake up for this.

The pygmy hippo is very rare as it lives in the rain forests on the east coast of Africa, that shrink dramatically. They were unknown until the 19th century as they hide themselves well during daytime. They feed of any plants they find in the forest, including leaves and fruits and are more adapted to living on land than their big relatives. But they still need the water as their skin otherwise dries out and they would overheat. Compared to common hippopotamus they are better swimmers.

Our plush mini hippopotamus can be washed when necessary, otherwise it does not need much water. But it needs to be pet and hugged - wishes which will be fulfilled gladly.

Size: 28 cm (~ 11.2'')
Colour: grey
Filling: Polyester fibre
Manufacturer: Kösener Spielzeug Manufaktur, Germany

The last photo shows right the offered large Hippopotamus in 45 cm (Kö-F1855), left this Mini-Hippopotamus in 28 cm.

The proceeds of this sale will be donated to a children's charity organisation.