The weight of an adult hippo reaches one and a half tons and, despite its size and the long teeth with which it is equipped, it is an animal that eats little in relation to its weight.
The eating habits of hippos are still being studied by scientists as recently it has been observed that these animals, once considered exclusively herbivorous, sometimes feed on meat, for example they eat carrion of drowned animals.
Hippos graze and eat only on the ground, they prefer short grass, small shoots and green canes, they tend to avoid the coarser herbs that are more difficult to digest, they tear the grass with their very wide lips and chew it with the molars, placed in the back of the mouth.
On the other hand, they do not eat while they are in the water because, chewing, they would ingest too much water.
These funny animals are very precious for the environment, they are a vital species for rivers and pools of water, they open water channels that would otherwise become clogged and cause the silt that would otherwise accumulate at the bottom of the deep pools to flood.
They also create paths that are useful to other animals and finally the hippo dung contains different nutrients that are released in the deep pools, in this way they feed a variety of other life forms such as insects and crustaceans.
