In the wild, hippo protects offspring and is prudent.
For example, females follow the cubs for seven years until they grow in size, grow stronger and can not take care of themselves. In other cases, a cub may be trampled by his own tribesmen. Different species have different life expectancies.
The pygmy hippo lives less than its usual fellow – 25-35 years in the wild.
Hippo live approximately twice as much – up to 50 years.
Life expectancy of hippos in the zoo slightly differs from life in nature, only occasionally as an exception are hippos-long-livers, which lasted up to 60 years.
A newborn cub weighs from 30 to 50 kg and immediately after birth knows how to keep on its feet and push off from the bottom of the reservoir. This is important, since the feeding of offspring with milk is carried out underwater, and also because the cub has to follow the mother during the night exiting to the land. To tie a cub to itself, the females guard them in the early days especially carefully and do not admit other hippos to them. In the first weeks after birth, the cub eats exclusively the mother’s milk, in time, vegetable food is added to it. After about a year, the young hippopotamus turns to a purely vegetable diet.
