Linda Wilkinson, age 12, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for her question:
What is a baby hippo like?
The Greeks named him the hippopotamus, meaning the river horse. But the whopping fellow is no relative of the horses. He is a giant cousin of the pigs. To the eye Of a non expert, the parent hippos do not resemble their piggy cousins. But anyone can spot the qualities of a playful. Piglet in young Junior Hippo.
Junior Hippo has the biggest mouth of any baby born on land. His huge, loving mama has the biggest mouth of any mother animal. On land. And Junior is a miniature copy Of his adored mama. He is usually an only child, and where mama goes, there goes the baby hippo.
He toddles behind her when she walks. He floats beside her in the muddy river with his chunky head resting on her bulky back. He swims and later learns to submerge with her. Some observers claim that he rides piggy back when she swims out into deep water.
Mrs. Hippo carries her unborn baby inside her body for eight and one half months. The little fell0w is born in the water, and at once he must come to the surface for his first breath of air. He is very alert for one so young. At the age of five minutes the baby hippo can swim or walk on toddling legs. The chubby youngster may measure three feet from his square nose to his miniature tail. He may stand one and one half feet at shoulder level and tip the scales at anything from 40 to 90 pounds.
The life of the young hippo is well protected. He has lots of friendly company and plenty of youthful playmates. Perhaps 10 or 20 female hippos live together in a sort of creche along with their growing children. The papa hippos keep to themselves in other places along the river.
Hippos are mammals, and Junior, of course, is fed on mother's milk. He is not weaned until he is two years old, and the growing baby doeb not venture far from his affectionate mother until he is three. At the age of six, he is an adult. The three foot baby may then be 14 feet long and weigh four tons. His mouth will be two feet wide, and his giant haws can be spread in a four foot yawn. With luck, our hippo will live to celebrate almost 50 birthdays.
Most of the mammy. Animals are clothed in coats of some kind of fur or fleece. The hippo's thick, spongy skin is quite naked, or so it seems. A c1ose examination, however, reveals a few stubby bristles. They grow inside the rounded ears and on the short, tapering tail, and a few bristles form a stubby beard around the hippo's big mouth.