How Do Hippos Breathe Underwater? (The Accurate Answer)

Massive animals, hippopotamuses spend nearly the whole day in the water. Their mouths are often underwater, along with the majority of their body.

However, because hippos are mammals, how can they manage to breathe underwater?
Hippos breathe Underwater do not truly.  Even while they are asleep, they can surface again to get oxygen without waking up. They use their noses to breathe when they aren’t entirely submerged. Their ears, eyes, and noses are located on top of their heads.

Hippos Can Hold Their Breath For Five Minutes:

Because they are mammals, so unable hippos breathe underwater. To take in oxygen from the atmosphere, they depend on their lungs.

However, they continue to spend a lot of time submerged, so what gives? Indeed, their noses, eyes, and lungs hold the key to the solution. For as long as 5 minute, hippos may store their breath.

When a hippo is submerged, its nostrils entirely shut (adduct). This aids in keeping water out of their lungs. Additionally, they can see safely beneath the water thanks to a transparent membrane covering their eyes.

Although hippos do submerge, this does not imply that they are breathing.

How Much Time Do Hippos Spend Underwater?

Hippos are not amphibious since cannot hippos breathe underwater.

Instead, they are referred to as “semi-aquatic” mammals because they stay almost the entire day in the water.
This is partially due to the extreme heat and aridity of their natural environment.

The hot, dry, and sunny regions of sub-Saharan Africa are home to hippos.

Temperatures above 100°F (40.5°C) are regularly reached in the hottest months of the year. It is rare for temperatures to drop beyond 60°F (15.5°C), nevertheless, during the winter.

sea also: How Do Frogs Breathe Underwater (Wonderful Procedure)

In lakes, wetlands, and leisurely-moving rivers, hippos inhabit lower altitudes. It’s usually warmer below sea level than it is above.

In addition, these regions have less trees and are far more open. In comparison to other places, this implies that they also get more solar exposure.

Hippocampus must remain in the water, either completely or partially submerged, in order to stay cool. They will stay in the sea during the majority of the day.

Hippos most likely stay submerged or stand on shallow banks for 16 hours or longer every day. Moreover, they could try to stay cool by wallowing in thick mud patches.

And after that they go outside to eat after the sun sets. About every six hours, hippos graze and consume one to 1.5 percent of their body weight.

The weight range for a male hippos is 3,500–9,920 pounds (1,600–4,500 kg). They are also nearly ten feet long and more than five feet tall at the shoulder.

It can be very taxing to move such enormous bodies about. Hippos often remain motionless to preserve energy when they are not feeding.

But to find food, they might have to go many miles. Hippos consume fallen fruit from trees and short grass.
A hippo may need to search for food all night long in order to consume enough to sustain itself. Nevertheless, by dawn, they’ll head back to the water to escape the heat and sunlight.

Hippos Don’t Have Normal Sweat:

For hippos, shade is more crucial than sun exposure for most other animals. This is due to the fact that their sweat glands are abnormal. Rather, their innermost layer of skin secretes a viscous red fluid.

It’s a common misconception that this fluid is blood, yet its color and viscosity are what give it that appearance. Instead, this “blood sweat” fluid acts as sunblock on the sensitive skin of a hippo.

It also aids in shielding them from illnesses. Hippos are known to spend a considerable amount of time in water tainted by feces and pathogens. They do not, however, have a greater infection rate than other animals.

Hippos Have Special Adaptations For Water:

Hippos have developed physical characteristics to help them because they must spent the  majority of the day in the water.

The eyes of a hippo have a protective membrane covering them, and they are situated above the head. Because of this, hippos are able to detect danger even when the majority of their body is submerged.

Their eyes and ears are likewise like this. They enable the hippo to breathe safely and remain vigilant as they are perched atop its head. Similar to their noses, a hippo’s ears close when it submerges.

Though they can also give birth on land, hippos also give birth underwater. Calves, or baby hippos, lack the strength of their parents.

They can also’t hold their hippos breathe underwater for as long; initially, it’s normally around 40 seconds. To get a breath, the mother pushes her newborn to the surface after delivery.

The mother hippo will then care over her babies for days without eating. It takes the babies many days to gain sufficient strength to exit the water and go grazing.

For eight months, mothers of baby hippos can milk their offspring underwater.

Can Hippos Swim?

Hippos are a water mammal, thus it makes sense that they can’t swim. In fact, their bodies are so dense that they are unable to float at all. They spend a lot of time in shallow water because of this.

But when they do need to move hippos breathe underwater, they just stroll along the river’s bed. They have the ability to propel themselves off the bottom with a bouncy gait.

To assist them move through the water, they have webs between their toes.

Dangers In The Water:

Although being a herbivores, hippos may be serious danger to both people and other animals. Hippos, especially when they are around their young, may be extremely hostile.

2020 saw attacks on forty individuals near Lake Naivasha, which in result14 death.

According to some experts, hippos can kill as many as 500 people annually through attack. On the other hand, definitive information regarding the actual death toll is lacking.

Hippos also have massive, constantly growing canines and incisors that they utilize for combat.

Hippos are obviously more than capable of defending themselves. However, they are still in risk from some predators as well as from within.

Predators that would not typically target adult hippos pose a threat to juvenile hippos. A young hippopo may be approached by crocodiles to be snatched. A baby hippo near the water’s edge can even catch the attention of a pack of lions.

They are extremely protective of their young in part because of this. Hippos inhabit huge colonies called “pods” or “sieges.” Although there are 200 hippos in each pod, 40 on average are found there.

Male hippos will still battle other hippos they believe to be a threat since they are fiercely protective of their territory. However, they can create serious issues while defending their pod and themselves.

In their aggressive confrontations, they can injure or even kill smaller hippos.

Conclusion:

Hippopotamuses require oxygen from the air to breathe, just like all other animals. Unlike fish and amphibians, they are incapable of hippos breathe underwater.

However, hippos have evolved unique adaptations for their aquatic environment. When they’re sleeping, they can hold their breath for extended periods of time and even come to the surface to breathe. On top of their heads are also their nostrils, ears, and eyes. In this manner, they are able to look about them while submerged.

Hippos need to have good water modifications since they rely on the water to stay cool. They don’t have typical sweat glands, and their skin is extremely sensitive to sunlight. Their skin stays cold and moist when they remain in the water.