9 Wild Hippopotamus Facts

Published May 22, 2023Updated February 22, 2025

Like octopus, the word hippopotamus is derived from ancient Greek, rather than Latin, meaning its plural is hippopotamuses, rather than hippopotami just as the correct plural for octopus is octopuses._[3]
Hippos are almost exclusively herbivorous, though they have been seen feeding on the carcasses of other animals, including other hippos._[2]
Between 29% and 87% of hippo attacks on humans are fatal. A human has better odds of surviving a grizzly, shark, or crocodile encounter._[2]
Scottish hunter Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming (1820–1866) travelled the continent of Africa for five years and wrote of the violent encounters his party often had with hippos._[1]

...the wondrous hippopotamus, an animal with which I was extremely surprised and delighted...being a larger, a more lively, and in every way a more interesting animal than certain writings had led me to expect.

- Roualeyn George Gordon-Cumming, Esq.

A hippo's jaws can open to 180 degrees, and their bite strength is ten times that of a human._[2]
Annually, hippopotamuses kill more than twice as many humans as do lions._[2]
Hippos are the most dangerous mammals in the world, second only to humans._[2]
Rising water levels in Kenya's Lake Naivasha, and economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to many fatal clashes between humans and hippos in the lake in 2021._[2]
Hippo attacks in locations around the world have led to calls for culling local hippo populations—something that locals often resist._[2]