The Nature Conservancy - Flora & Fauna

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Hippopotamus

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By day, the hippopotamus lies low, partially submerged in slow-moving waters of sub-Saharan Africa; by night, it lumbers onto land to feed on a stretch of shoreline known as a hippo lawn. The hippo’s cumbersome body and sedentary lifestyle may belie its aggressive, territorial nature. But as political struggles, poaching and human pressure on freshwater resources draw man and beast closer, human-hippo conflicts are on the rise.

Once common in the Nile region and West Africa, hippos are now abundant only in East Africa. The species has been hardest hit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 95 percent of the hippo population has been lost in the past 13 years. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that as few as 125,000 hippos exist today in 29 African countries, and the organization has now listed the common hippopotamus as vulnerable to extinction. In northwest Zambia, however, things are looking up for these heavyweights. The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the African Wildlife Foundation, is working to develop sustainable livelihoods for farmers and fishers along the 1,500-mile Zambezi River, where improving the health of the river basin means safeguarding prime hippo habitat as well.

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