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 don’t actually swim.
Despite their appearance hippos are all muscle. They don’t float due to their (surprisingly) low body fat, they sink. So when you see hippos powering through water they’re not swimming. They’re actually running along the bottom.
All of that muscle combined with a shocking level of aggression makes a very determined underwater runner.
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