Today is World Hippo Day where we celebrate the ‘river horses’ and their importance in our ecosystems. In case you didn’t know how much we need hippos, the answer is a lot!
Global (15 February 2024) — 15 February marks World Hippo Day—a big reminder of just how important hippos (AKA, River Horses) are to our ecosystems. But did you know just how much we actually need hippos?
Often labelled as lazy river loungers who spent their days relaxing in the sub-Saharan African sun, the hippo’s task is actually one of the unique and vital proportions.
Beyond their role in the food chain (hippos are herbivores and not the kind any plant or animal should want to mess with), hippos are actually essential for nutrient distribution in the waterbodies they call home!
As biologist Jonas Schoelynck puts it: “They act as a kind of nutrient pump from the land to rivers and lakes.” This is because hippos head from water to land, where they graze before excreting into the water—an essential part of what keeps rivers healthy.
Dubbed “vital ecosystem engineers” by the World Wildlife Foundation South Africa, riverbanks, wetlands and other water bodies need hippos critically to be nurtured. When hippo populations decline, the domino effect can be felt down to the smallest insects and even nearby communities.
In South Africa, hippos once swam and roamed across the country. But today, they are mostly evident in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, with reintroduction programmes in the Eastern and Western Cape, as the Kruger National Park shares.
Hippos find themselves under threat when habitats become degraded and hunting arises. As such, one of the biggest ways to help the hippos is to make sure their ecosystems are safe and looked after!
The WWF has an awesome approach to supporting hippos through a symbolic adoption. This adoption helps them influence wildlife conservation, which, in turn, plays its part in protecting the hippo’s homes.
You can find out more about the symbolic adoption here!
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