Nile Hippopotamus

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Lifespan

Up to 40 years

in the wild, 62 years under human care

Diet

Grass

Habitat

Estuaries

and lower courses of rivers

Range

Eastern central

and southern sub-Saharan Africa

The Nile hippos

Together, we protect wildlife

Hippos on the edge

Potentially vulnerable due to its specialised ecology, the loss of grazing habitat and desertification threaten the Nile hippo’s continued survival. It is also hunted for meat and killed for raiding crops and attacking fishermen.

Conservation organisation African Wildlife Foundation engages communities in mitigating human-hippo conflict; constructing fences, and ditches to protect farmland from grazing hippos.

Ever since elephant ivory was banned in 1990, the trade-in hippo teeth have been on the rise. Carved into artwork, hippo ivory looks exquisite. But the act of buying fuels only the demand for them. Refuse wildlife products.

The IUCN Status

Vulnerable

At high risk of extinction in the wild