420 RECORDS OF BIG GAME 



HIPPOPOTAMUS (Hippopotamus amphibius). 



Swahili name Kiboko. Abyssinian name Gumare. 



Danakil name Dul. Boer name Zee-koe. 



Galla name Robi. Swazi name Imvubu. 



Basuto name Ikubu. 



Such a familiar animal as the uncouth and unwieldy hippopotamus — 

 the largest member of the swine group — requires but little in the way 

 of description here. It is widely distinguished from the pigs and wart- 

 hogs by the broad and rounded muzzle, so unlike the disc-shaped snout 

 of the latter ; and consequently forms a family by itself. The tusks 

 and molars are likewise of a totally different and distinctive type ; 

 while the feet have four sub-equal toes with symmetrical, rounded nails. 

 In all its organisation the hippopotamus is beautifully adapted for a 

 sub-aquatic life ; the eyes and nostrils forming the highest points of the 

 head, and thus allowing the creature to come up and breathe with the 

 least possible exposure of its body. The weight of a full-grown bull 

 hippo is at least three tons. 



Distribution. — Formerly this animal frequented most of the rivers of 

 Africa south of the Sahara, but it has long since been exterminated 

 from the lower reaches of the Nile, and is daily becoming scarcer 

 in the South African rivers. In the Zambesi, where it is less easily 

 attacked than in the smaller rivers of Maishonal^nd, it is still 

 abundant, as it also is in the Chobe and neighbouring rivers, as well as 

 in Lake Ngami ; and even in the lower reaches of the Orange River 

 a few are still to be met with. North of the Zambesi these animals 

 occur in great numbers. Hippos are chiefly hunted for the sake 

 of their hides, which are manufactured into sjamboks, or raw-hide 

 whips. Their tusks have also a certain commercial value, although 

 not so great as formerly, when they were employed for artificial teeth. 



In Liberia and some other parts of the West Coast there occurs the 

 much smaller pigmy hippopotamus {H. liberiensis), an animal measuring 

 only some six feet in length, and possessing more the habits of a pig. 

 It also differs from the common species by having, as a rule, only one, 

 instead of two, pairs of incisor teeth between the tusks. 



A hippopotamus, shot on the Shir^ River, British Central Africa, 

 by F. Vaughan Kirby, measured as follows : 



ft. in. ft. in. 



Total length, nose to tail 1 4 2 Length of tusks . .25 



Tail . . . .18 Circumference of tusks . 8|^ 



Vertical standing height 3 10^ Weight per pair „ • 14J lbs. 



