A Hippopotamus Hunt, Mlembo River, Rhodesia, East Africa
The word "hippopotamus" (hp-p-pt´ å-ms) means "river horse." As you can readily see, these animals are much larger than horses, and the river is their home. Here you see an American hunter in Rhodesia, Africa, resting after a busy morning with his rifle. He has bagged three large hippopotamuses. The natives who are with him are happy. There is a great feast ahead, for the meat of the hippopotamus is a food they relish. The skins, too, are valuable, so that the hunt has been a profitable one. The hippopotamus is a queer-looking animal. Its great body is set on four stubby legs each of which spreads out into four toes. Its feet are partly webbed. Its head is wider below the nostrils that at the ears. Its little ears are rounded, and have a flap inside to keep out the water. The nostrils project out from the snout so the animal can breathe while swimming by merely sticking his nostrils above the water. The nostrils can also be closed by inside flaps. The big body is not covered by hairs, but has only a few bristles. Ugly and ungainly though he is, the hippopotamus is well made to live in swamps and rivers. The animals are huge in size. Their bodies are often 14 feet long and 3 1/2 feet high. They live on plants, and feed at night. They are sleepy, stupid animals in daytime. They swim lazily about in the rivers, or sink to the bottom to tramp about, coming to the top of the water from time to time to breathe. The mother hippo is very fond of her baby. She watches over him kindly and carefully and takes him swimming on her back. From whom did Rhodesia get its name? What animal resembles the hippopotamus most? Keystone ID: 17012 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.