When looking at a hippo it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume it swims like a manatee.
I can appreciate they’re pretty quick on land despite their little legs, I imagine there is mad power in those stumpy bois. But in the water how do they get any real propulsion and how do they glide through with such wide and seemingly non hydrodynamic bodies?
I’ve seen videos of them chasing down speedboats, it defies logic. What’s going on under there?
In: Biology
Hippos look fat, but they don’t actually have huge fat reserves. Their bulk is from thick skin, muscle and bone. So they are heavy and sink in water. The water they live in is shallow and they move by sinking then pushing themselves along the bottom. When moving slowly this looks quite graceful as they use all legs at once. When they want to move quickly they can switch to “running” along the bottom whereby they push with one leg at a time to maximise contact with the ground and so push themselves faster forward.
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