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The Health Insurance Authority is a regulatory 20 00:00:58.399 --> 00:00:59.799 body under the Government of Ireland. 21 00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:02.399 Oh hey, it's the fish soup that you spilled all 22 00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:05.519 over the kitchen, which actually did happen to me? Hallie Ward, 23 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.560 And this is Ologies. It's a podcast where we explore 24 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:10.959 an ology a week. So you are tuning into a 25 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.959 chat about hippos. It will leave you changed. It changed me. 26 00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:18.480 We've got a true hippopotomologist, a professor of biology at 27 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:22.760 San Diego State University whose research at Vassar and UC 28 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:27.079 Davis focused on vulnerable wildlife populations and conservation and of 29 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.879 course hippos, so they know way more about hippos than 30 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.640 most people ever will on the planet. And they're in 31 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:37.159 a very elite club of hippopotomologists. And I asked her 32 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.519 all of my very not smart questions as well as yours. 33 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:42.319 If you want to submit a question ahead of time 34 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.000 before we record, you can become a patron at Patreon 35 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:47.719 dot com slash Ologies. It costs about twenty five cents 36 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:50.599 an episode to join. It helps fund the show. You 37 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:53.519 can also buy Ologies merch at Ologiesmarch dot com, or 38 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:56.200 you can support for no dollars by leaving us a review, 39 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.079 which helps convince me that I'm not broadcasting to an 40 00:01:59.079 --> 00:02:01.519 assortment of dolls in a basement. And I read all 41 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:04.599 your reviews such as this one from Chris F, who writes, 42 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:07.400 even if I wear a many legged insect, I still 43 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:09.639 wouldn't have enough appendedist to count all the times I've 44 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:12.280 thrown a Did you know this bizarre and uniquely entertaining 45 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.800 fact about x y or z at an unsuspecting friend 46 00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:17.599 since I started listening to this podcast, Three cheers to you, 47 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.919 Weird podcast Dad, Chris F, and all my stuffed animals 48 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:26.599 listening out there. Thank you for letting me fother you. Okay, hippos, hippos, 49 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:29.520 you might know. You probably know that hippopotamus in Latin 50 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.560 it means river horse. If you didn't know that, I'm 51 00:02:33.599 --> 00:02:36.319 going to give you a second. It's hippo means horse, 52 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:41.520 Potamus means of the river. Hippopotamus river horse. These beasts, 53 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.439 they are artidactyls, meaning that they have an even number 54 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:47.439 of toes, like a bison or a deer in a giraffe, 55 00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:50.439 those are all in artidactyls, and after elephants and rhinos, 56 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:53.599 hippos are the largest land mammal. Even though the common 57 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:58.919 hippo's scientific name is hippopotamus amphibious terrestrial animal. We'll get 58 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.479 into it. Soot weird little ears are a way to 59 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:06.639 learn about knife teeth, blood, sweat, swamp hippos, pet hippos, subspecies, 60 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:10.039 their daily diet, the current state of hippo conservation, the 61 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:14.240 absolute chaotic affection we have for mudang. How many people 62 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:17.560 hippos kill a year? For real? If you need to 63 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:21.039 apologize to a hippo, Who are hippo's best friends? Their 64 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:24.560 role as ecosystem engineers, if you have ever been brainwashed 65 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.159 about a hippo, what's up with their nostrils? How to 66 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:30.199 keep a hippo in your pocket? And tips on flattering 67 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.280 your friends into planning a group vacation with conservation biologists. 68 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:38.520 Professor and actual real life hippopotomologist, doctor Rebecca Lewison. 69 00:03:57.759 --> 00:03:59.599 I'm Rebecca Lewison and she her. 70 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:02.599 Thank you so much for doing this. As someone who 71 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:07.000 studies hippos, this is a busy time of life for you, 72 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.960 and we will get to why how long have hippos 73 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.280 been part of your bread and butter? 74 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.279 I started studying hippos as a graduate student. I was 75 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:22.319 at UC Davis doing my PhD in ecology, and I 76 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:26.240 kind of stumbled into this project to work on hippos. 77 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:29.959 My interest was to study behavioral ecology. 78 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:30.920 At the time. 79 00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:35.839 I just really loved it. Was fascinated by sort of 80 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:40.600 the minutia of animal behavior, and I thought, oh, this 81 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:44.959 will be perfect. I'll study hippos, which anyone who actually 82 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.360 studies behavior will be laughing when they hear this, because 83 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.160 you think, like, no, no, no, no, you study behavior 84 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.439 on small things like birds or squirrels, not hippos. 85 00:04:55.480 --> 00:04:59.000 Not her. She dedicated her research to a notoriously challenging 86 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.199 terrestrial spech what the hell happened? 87 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:04.639 But I had this opportunity because I had spent time 88 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:08.680 in Kenya as an undergrad and so could speak some 89 00:05:08.759 --> 00:05:11.639 Swahili and had traveled around and just had a fair 90 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:14.079 amount of field experience. And so I got this amazing 91 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:18.560 opportunity and kind of just fell into it and didn't 92 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:21.519 realize what I was getting into at the time, and 93 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:24.519 sort of entering this amazing world of this understeadied animal. 94 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.120 So it might be easier to see the behavior of 95 00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:29.759 like spiders if they're living in the lab and stuff. 96 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:33.120 Exactly, you can't study it in the lab. You can't 97 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.720 manipulate it at all. They're actually really hard to study, 98 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:39.519 period because they spend almost all their time in the water, 99 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:44.040 Like you couldn't pick something less studiable if you tried. 100 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:47.879 You know, pop culturally, there's no lack of hippos. 101 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.160 Who didn't play Hungry Hungry Hippo as. 102 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:53.199 A kid, Oh it was Hungry Hungry Hippo. Whoever gobbles 103 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.399 under host marbles where I played it all the time? 104 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:58.319 They don't even eat marbles in real life. 105 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:00.279 Right, they definitely don't. 106 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:03.279 What are they eating? Are they eating mostly plants? 107 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:07.319 They are eating mostly plants, so they are herbivores. They 108 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:09.279 eat grass, so we can be a little bit more 109 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:12.839 specific than that. They're basically like lawnmowers. They eat a 110 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:15.480 tremendous amount of grass, and it has to be pretty 111 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:20.600 short grass. Why well, because it's just wait until we 112 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:23.800 unpack this. Like, hippos are amazing head to tail, but 113 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.279 they don't really have a neck. They don't really have 114 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:31.120 any structures in the back of that part of their spine, 115 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:33.240 so they can't really lift their heads up like when 116 00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:36.319 you think of like giraffes or elephants. They can't do that, 117 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:38.879 so they're really limited by the grass height. 118 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:44.160 No neck. Hippos are necklace and so are they foraging 119 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.399 grasses on the banks of rivers or are they coming 120 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:48.160 up on land. 121 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:51.000 Yes, that's a great question, and it's a little bit 122 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:52.920 of a Yes, they do forage on the banks. But 123 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.319 what you'll see if you're in a place where there 124 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:57.240 are a lot of hippos is you really know a 125 00:06:57.240 --> 00:06:59.480 lot about where hippos are going because they have these 126 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:03.199 trails and you can look down on the trail and 127 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:06.399 see like a hippoprint, another hippoprint. So they just follow 128 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:08.680 these trails for a really long time. So they're really 129 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:13.040 well established to what we call grazing lawns, so areas 130 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:17.079 of short grass that are some distance away from usually 131 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:18.240 the water where they're in. 132 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.600 So they have stomped down a little highway that leads 133 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:24.800 to a food court of short grass. It's like a 134 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:28.680 free buffet, but it only serves short grass. If hippos 135 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:31.040 are like the size of a car or a small 136 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.639 car and they're eating just a very particular kind of 137 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:38.199 grass down a long trail, how are they getting enough 138 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:41.560 calories to have so much cake, to have such a 139 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:42.279 dump trucks? 140 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:45.720 Yeah, it's crazy. We think they eat somewhere between like 141 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:49.439 maybe fifty to one hundred pounds. We don't one hundred 142 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:51.639 percent know, because it's hard to tell, and obviously in 143 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:55.519 captivity their diet is much better. They you'll see them 144 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:57.839 like eating the watermelon or pumpkins, you know if you've 145 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.160 seen the videos. So they're not necessarily super particular on 146 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:03.600 the species of grass, just the height of the grass. 147 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:08.240 So I think these grazing lawns are there because of them, 148 00:08:08.839 --> 00:08:11.920 and they continue to get mowed down by hippos, and 149 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.959 they're pretty long lived, so I'm sure they have a 150 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.240 lot of information that they store. And if you want 151 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:20.160 to study, like if you were a gradual student and 152 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:23.040 you were captivated by forging behavior, that's what you do. 153 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:27.040 You'd follow the paths, you'd sit in a vehicle and 154 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:30.279 you'd get some crude nightscope and you'd watch them for 155 00:08:30.360 --> 00:08:32.720 hours and hours and hours. And that's basically what I did. 156 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:34.639 Are they nocturnal? 157 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.360 Yes, what they only come out of the water at night? 158 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:39.279 What? 159 00:08:39.799 --> 00:08:43.080 And we think that's because of thermoregulation, right, they're adapted 160 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:45.559 to be in the water. They don't do well if 161 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.799 there isn't standing water, and they'll die without that. So 162 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:52.159 in the dry season and so for most of the 163 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:55.759 year they are only coming out of the water. You 164 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:58.799 know when it's dusk and getting dark. So yeah, what 165 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:01.679 I would do is sit. I would drive my land 166 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:05.200 rover to the place where that foraging one was and 167 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:08.120 then I would sit on the roof with a pretty 168 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:12.639 old school nightscope and watch them forage. That was That's 169 00:09:12.679 --> 00:09:14.200 what I did for about a year. 170 00:09:14.919 --> 00:09:16.919 When would you sleep? Would you sleep during the day? 171 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:21.200 I have some crazy stories of falling asleep and like 172 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:25.039 waking up to elephants at my eye level because I 173 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:28.279 would fall asleep. Like you said, I wasn't getting enough sleep. 174 00:09:28.279 --> 00:09:31.120 But yes, I would sleep during the day and try 175 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:32.919 to stay up. And I would have to do it 176 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.600 when there was some full moon because it was really crude. 177 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:40.120 It was, you know, mid nineties, so we had nightscopes, 178 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:41.440 but nothing like we do now. 179 00:09:41.840 --> 00:09:44.200 What happens if you're asleep on top of a land 180 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:47.440 rover watching hippos and a elephant wakes you up, It's 181 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:48.159 a good question. 182 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:51.879 The incredible thing is what I remember doing is picking 183 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.360 my head up and I'm literally at eye level because 184 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.679 I was on the top of this pickup truck and 185 00:09:57.799 --> 00:09:59.960 I literally just picked my head up. I saw an 186 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:02.159 elephant and I was so tired. I just put my 187 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:03.480 head down and went back to sleep. 188 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:07.639 No, yeah, did you think you were dreaming for one second? 189 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.320 I think I woke up in the morning and I 190 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:14.320 definitely was like, what, oh, you know for people who 191 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.200 work in the field, and yeah, obviously I was careful 192 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:20.120 and you know, followed all the protocols I was supposed 193 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:22.720 to follow. But amazing things happen. 194 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:25.960 Just a normal day on the job for a hippoecologist. 195 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:31.240 So you're absolutely in a Safari park of life, or 196 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:35.480 you're surrounded by something that sounds like a fever dream. 197 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.039 What are you doing when you're watching them at night? 198 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:41.879 Are you taking notes like this one went and did 199 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:44.159 a poop on this one or this one seems to 200 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:44.720 be crying. 201 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:47.240 I know it's so I'm going to say it out 202 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:49.159 loud and then people are going to think, like what 203 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:50.279 scientists do? 204 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:50.600 What? 205 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:55.639 But I was actually counting the number of bites and steps. 206 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:58.000 I know, I say it out loud and I just 207 00:10:58.039 --> 00:11:00.519 think what And it does sound like my nusha to 208 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:03.399 me too, But it's fascinating, like we know what we do. 209 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:07.200 What do hippos do? How far do they go? Can 210 00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:10.159 they just go anywhere? Like you were asking those questions initially, 211 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.000 so I spent all this time trying to understand sort 212 00:11:13.039 --> 00:11:15.679 of their their strategy. How do they make it work, 213 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:18.519 how do they get enough, how do they decide where 214 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:20.720 to go? And how do you make choices about where 215 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:21.360 to forage? 216 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:25.360 And so when we see hippos and zoos, they are 217 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.639 opening their gaping moss and a whole pumpkin goes in. 218 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.240 But do they have that kind of experience ever in 219 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:35.799 the wild? 220 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:37.279 They don't. 221 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:41.799 Hippos in captivity. You know, all the accredited places that 222 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:46.000 hippos are living takes amazing care of the animals. They 223 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.679 give them lettuce and pumpkins and watermelon and amazing things, 224 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:53.720 and very very well fed. But no, nothing like that 225 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:55.720 happens to hippos in the wild. 226 00:11:56.360 --> 00:11:58.519 How long do they live? You said they live a 227 00:11:58.559 --> 00:11:59.039 long time? 228 00:11:59.480 --> 00:12:02.320 Yeah, I think they live around thirty to forty years 229 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:04.919 in the wild, and in captivity they can live quite 230 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:05.639 a bit longer. 231 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:09.679 And okay, there are horses of the river right, like 232 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:14.840 water horses. Yes, how are they extracting calories from a 233 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:18.320 bunch of grass? Do they have stomachs like hippos? I 234 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:20.159 mean stomachs like horses. 235 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:22.919 Hippos, You're never gonna leave this. 236 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:28.399 Hippos have stomachs like hippos. Okay, so memory said they 237 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:32.039 are incredible head to toe, so they have incredible stomachs. 238 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:34.919 So anyone who's like fascinated by stomachs, they's not going 239 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.320 to be a very large slice of listeners. But out 240 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:42.039 there they have all this interesting stomach structures that actually 241 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:45.919 is similar to what cows have. They are not ruminants, 242 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:48.480 but they do have this like blind sack. They have 243 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.919 like this three chambered stomach, but they do something similar 244 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:55.200 to ruminants, so they don't have like cud, but they 245 00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:58.080 keep things in their stomach a really long time. And 246 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:00.960 I think that gets to your question more than elephants 247 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.200 are like conveyor bils. It goes in and it goes out. 248 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:06.360 And if you see an elephant poop, I don't know 249 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:08.720 who has, but you'll notice like, oh, I know what 250 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:11.159 that is. It looks just like what they just took in. 251 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:14.080 But for hippos not so. So it really breaks down 252 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.399 a lot so that this three chambered stomach has this 253 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:20.840 ability to extract resources. So even though fifty to one 254 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:24.519 hundred pounds sounds a lot, for wild hippos, like you said, 255 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:28.279 they're size of a VW bus. And so they're using 256 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:32.919 this three chambered stomach structure to extract all the nutrients 257 00:13:32.919 --> 00:13:34.799 and keep things in their stomach kind of a long time. 258 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:38.600 So if you're a hippo doing your thing, it's say 259 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:42.039 a Thursday, and you're eating an average of seventy five 260 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:46.200 pounds of mode grass, which is about two huge garbage 261 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:50.600 bags full of lawn clippings per day. So much salad. 262 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:55.200 Your favorite dressing, I guess is mud. There's no croutons. 263 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:58.159 Maybe you got some accidental worms in there, but you're 264 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.320 eating dirt grass. It's the breakfast of champions. It's the 265 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.360 lunch of champions. It's the dinner of champions. How many 266 00:14:05.399 --> 00:14:08.200 pounds are we talking of hippo. 267 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:12.399 So they're about like twenty five hundred to three thousand 268 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:14.000 pounds in the wild. 269 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:19.399 In the wild, and then pigmy hippos, by contrast, pigmy. 270 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:23.320 Hippos, by contrast, are about four hundred to four fifty. 271 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:27.279 So there are only two species of hippopotamuses or hippopotami. 272 00:14:27.559 --> 00:14:30.519 Either word is legit and fine. I thought there were 273 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:34.639 maybe ten species of hippopotamus, but they're two. The common 274 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:38.000 big ass hippo that you're used to is a hippopotamus amphibious. 275 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:42.320 And then there's the pygmy hippo Cooropsis liberiensis. You don't 276 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:44.960 need to know those names, but there's just two species. 277 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:49.000 And pigmy hippos are one sixth the size of a 278 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:51.279 regular hippo or a common hippo. 279 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:53.240 Really really quite a bit smaller. 280 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.200 Yeah, that's kind of like a pig, right. 281 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:58.120 A big pig. Absolutely. 282 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:01.720 Wait, how come I I didn't know about pygmy hippos 283 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:02.360 until now. 284 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:06.519 This is the reason most people don't. It's because pygmy 285 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:10.080 hippos are only in West African countries, and even within 286 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:15.080 West African countries, they're only in four of them, and 287 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:17.200 they're very, very secretive. 288 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:19.080 Whereas the big hippos that you're used to are just 289 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:20.840 like here, they're like, I'm in the river, what's up? 290 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:24.240 So we think of common hippos right there, this iconic 291 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:28.080 animal of the African savannah. Right, you'll see a picture 292 00:15:28.120 --> 00:15:31.200 of like a big hippo gaping with a sunset behind it. 293 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:35.840 Until two thousand and six, we hadn't even ever had 294 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:38.000 a picture of pygmy hippos in the wild. 295 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:40.600 No, and it's because they're. 296 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.720 Very rare, right, they're an endangered animal. And there's used 297 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:48.240 to be a very large forest complex in Sierra Leone 298 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.960 and Liberia and Guinea and Kochvoir that kind of went 299 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:55.639 over that entire region. It's largely been lost or there's 300 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.279 been a lot of habitat loss of that forest, and 301 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:02.600 that's what pigmy hippos were like. They're also solitary, so 302 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:05.240 they don't do this big group aggregation that we see 303 00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:09.200 with common hippos. So it's not surprising. They're secretive and solitary, 304 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.639 cryptic forest animals, and there's very very few of them. 305 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.320 These a little big babies. They live in Northwest Africa 306 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:18.440 and forests. They keep to themselves. They come out at 307 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:23.000 night like mothman, and they're little, they're like farm hog size. 308 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:25.960 As for how long humans have been gazing at them 309 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:29.360 from behind a fence, according to this nineteen seventy two paper, 310 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:32.440 The Care and Breeding of the Pigmy Hippopotamus in Captivity, 311 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.799 the first time they were introduced into captivity was an 312 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.600 eighteen seventy three in a Dublin zoo, and I was 313 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.240 looking to try to find out more about that, but instead, 314 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:45.320 I stumbled upon an article about a Scottish zoo who 315 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.720 just a few months ago welcomed the birth of a 316 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:50.720 baby girl pigmy hippo, and then they made the decision 317 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:54.600 to name her Hagis. In all fairness, she does resemble 318 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:56.679 kind of a gray lump made of skin, but they 319 00:16:57.279 --> 00:17:00.240 didn't have to go there. But yeah, the people, they 320 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:02.200 want the baby pygmy hippos. 321 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.640 With little sign that Moo dung feva is waning. 322 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:08.359 It seems this bouncy pig is more than earning her key. 323 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:12.319 Forced out of their land and hunted to near extinction 324 00:17:12.359 --> 00:17:15.480 in the wild, but in captivity, absolute sly. 325 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:19.559 San Diego Zoo, you know, fantastic zoo. I used to 326 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:21.359 go with my kids and we'd be standing at the 327 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:24.799 pygmy hippo. People would say, oh, these are just baby hippos. 328 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:28.039 Oh, that's got to be infuriating for you. What did 329 00:17:28.079 --> 00:17:28.640 you say? 330 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:35.599 I corrected everybody they wanted it or not, but they 331 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:39.039 do look honestly to me, they look very different. But 332 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:42.279 I can understand why people maybe think they're the same thing, 333 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:46.079 only smaller. So for everyone listening, they're absolutely not. Pigmy 334 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.440 hippos are a separate species, and actually evolutionarily they split 335 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.000 from common hippos like millions of. 336 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.640 Years really, so it's convergent evolution. 337 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:00.160 Yeah, and a lot of the structures that they have 338 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:03.680 are not that similar. But one of the things that 339 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:07.960 I know people sometimes get fascinated about common hippos is 340 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.519 that they are most closely related to whales and cetaceans. 341 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:14.559 No, that's true. 342 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:16.480 No, that is one hundred percent true. 343 00:18:16.599 --> 00:18:20.240 No, what that's right? Common hippos, the big ones who 344 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:22.920 are used to they were most closely related to whales. 345 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:28.319 Whales, Uh, yes, and we know this from like all 346 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.000 lines of evidence, Like it used to just be morphology, 347 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:35.640 morphological evidence, and they did looking at fossils and different 348 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:39.799 parts of the animals. But as signs progressed and we 349 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:43.119 started using genetic information, they've used all sorts of genetic 350 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.519 tests to demonstrate that they are in fact sister taxa 351 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:49.000 cetaceans and hippos. 352 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:58.799 So, no, there so many questions. Mouths, mouths I'm thinking 353 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:04.440 of like bay Lean, huge insane mouths on whales and hippos. 354 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:06.000 Why mouth so big? 355 00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:10.240 Why aren't their mouth so big? That's a good question, actually, so, 356 00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:13.359 and then Pygmy hippos don't have the gape like common 357 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.200 hippos do. Right, common hippos have like one hundred and eighty. 358 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.240 They can actually open their jaws. 359 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:19.400 That much unhinge, you know. 360 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:22.160 And it is a good question why because it's not 361 00:19:22.200 --> 00:19:25.720 like they're eating pumpkins and big things in the wild. 362 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:30.319 I will say that male hippos. Sometimes you'll see male 363 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:33.680 hippos engaged in what looks like we're going to say, 364 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:38.200 like this mortal combat. I don't think it usually results 365 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.880 in mortality. But they do use their gape both, I 366 00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:45.240 think against other hippos, you know, if they're having a 367 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:49.720 territorial fight and other animals, they're pretty badass. 368 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:50.960 How big are their teeth? 369 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:53.200 Well, so they have different types of teeth. They have 370 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:56.640 sort of molars, and then they have canines which come 371 00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.720 up which can be nine or ten inches, and then 372 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:06.680 they also have incisors. The canines are actually most similar 373 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:08.559 to elephant tusks. 374 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:10.000 What are they used for? 375 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:13.599 Again, it's probably just some type of defense. 376 00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:19.559 That's so much tooth for someone that eats grass. 377 00:20:18.279 --> 00:20:21.599 So much tooth, and it's a bummer for them because 378 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:26.640 those canine teeth actually do have ivory. Oh so it's 379 00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:29.759 not as high quality as elephants. But it's one of 380 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:32.119 the reasons that hippos have gotten wrapped up in the 381 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:36.440 ivory trade or legal ivory trade, is because they're canines. 382 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:37.920 So those are the ones that are sort of the 383 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:42.440 curved ones coming out of their bottom jaw have made 384 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:42.880 of ivory. 385 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:47.839 These tusks, these mouth harpoons grow their entire lives, and 386 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:52.599 the bottom incisors they jut straight out for better stabbing. 387 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:55.839 And though females do have smaller teeth than the males, 388 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:00.720 male tusks can be over twenty inches long or sixty centimeters. 389 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:04.119 Why so big because they use them to gore the 390 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:08.640 mouths of their rivals in this spitty, bloody jab battle. 391 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:11.519 It looks like chewing on glass. Now that I know 392 00:21:11.559 --> 00:21:16.720 that they are sister taxa to whales. Yeah, swimming? How 393 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:19.880 are they swimming? They got no flippers? What's going on? 394 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:24.960 All right? You're ready? They aren't even swimming. No, they 395 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:25.960 can't swim. 396 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:29.839 They sort of glide walk run along the bottom. 397 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:32.359 So they're never in deep water. 398 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:37.039 They can be in deep water, they can't be submerged, 399 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:40.039 you know, they can stander for about five to six minutes, 400 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.839 but they're not actually swimming. I guess if you think about, 401 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:46.200