122 ] Animals in the Wild 



THE MONUMENTAL HIPPO 



This four-ton river horse is anything but glamorousyet, despite the hippo's 

 ugliness, children enjoy observing it, perhaps because of its great size and mild 

 manner. Its enormous mouth and tusklike teeth are exercised exclusively on 

 vegetation. The African natives hunt it for its flesh and its tusks. 



surface! Once your child realizes the extent to which hippos are 

 water animals, he may see the advantage of their peculiarly placed 

 eyes, ears, and nose. All these features are at about the same level 

 on top of the animal's huge flat head. Thus the hippo need keep 

 only a small part of its head above water in order to see, hear, 

 and breathe at times when all the rest of its body is submerged. 



THE UNPREDICTABLE RHINO 



Like the elephant, the rhinoceros is native to both Africa 

 and India. You can tell the African "black" rhino by its two 

 horns; the large Indian rhino has only one horn. Rhinos spend 

 much of their time sleeping and browsing on twigs. They have 

 remarkably keen senses of smell and hearing and they are quickly 

 alert to danger. They may charge an enemy with surprising 

 agility or do a right-about-face and gallop away. Poor eyesight 

 makes their actions especially unpredictable. They were once 

 much more plentiful than they are today, for hunters have greatly 

 reduced the numbers of these "nose-horns" (the literal meaning 

 of "rhinoceros") . 



