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Pygmy Hippopotamus — printable fact sheet
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Pygmy Hippopotamus
Choeropsis liberiensis
The pygmy hippo shares a name with the common hippopotamus and very little else about how it lives. It is a forest animal of West Africa — solitary rather than herd-forming, nocturnal, and far less bound to water, which it uses to hide and to stay cool rather than to live in. It…
Did you know?
- The pygmy hippopotamus was not scientifically described until the 19th century, and wild individuals are so elusive that most information comes from captive specimens.
- Despite the name it lives nothing like a common hippo — it is solitary, nocturnal, and forages alone in dense forest rather than living in water. Its eyes sit on the sides of its head, not on top, because it does not lurk submerged. It secretes a reddish fluid, often called blood sweat, that works as both a sunscreen and an antibiotic. It is so secretive that most of what we know comes from captivity.
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