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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
The hippopotamus is a very large, mostly plant-eating mammal from Africa that spends its days in rivers and lakes. Despite this, a hippo cannot really swim. It is too heavy to float, so it walks or bounces along the bottom of the river instead, coming up to breathe. It is the only animal to spend all day in the water purely to stand in it.[1]
Hippos have no sweat glands. Instead their skin produces an oily reddish-orange liquid, sometimes called “blood sweat”, which is neither blood nor sweat. It protects the hippo from the sun and appears to help keep germs out of cuts.[2] The hippo was making its own sunscreen millions of years before anyone made one in a bottle, and has never once forgotten to reapply.
The colour comes from two pigments, one red and one orange. A survey to decide which was more important was abandoned when the surveyors realised they had been comparing red and orange.
The hippo's closest living relatives are whales and dolphins. This is the second most surprising thing about the hippo, after the fact that the whales can swim.