Kissing a Hippo!
We love “Picture of the Day” on the website Wikimedia, because they always find the wackiest photos — like this one. Photographer William Warby snapped these 2 kissing hippos at the Whipsnade Zoo in England. Actually, it’s hard to tell whether they’re playing, kissing, or just shoving each other out of the way. Hippo is short for “hippopotamus,’ which means “river horse.” These round, gray lumps are the 3rd largest land mammal, after the elephant and the white rhinoceros. The funny thing is, their closest cousins are another set of chubby mammals: whales and dolphins!
Wee ones: Hippos have 4 short, stumpy legs. What numbers would you say to count them?
Little kids: Hippos need to breathe every 3 minutes. If a hippo swims for 3 minutes, comes up for 1 minute, then goes under for 3, how many minutes does that take? Bonus: If it keeps up that pattern, is the hippo swimming or breathing at 10 minutes?
Big kids: If you ride on your 3,300-kg pet hippo, how much do you weigh together? Find out your weight in kg! Bonus: If a rhino weighs 4,000 kg, a horse weighs 1,000 kilograms, and a hippo’s weight is halfway between, how much does the hippo weigh?
The sky’s the limit: A hippo can live until 45 years. If a hippo’s grandkids are all ages that divide neatly into 45, with 1 hippo of each age, at least how many grandkids must it have?
Answers:
Wee ones: 1, 2, 3, 4.
Little kids: 7 minutes. Bonus: Swimming, until 11 minutes are up
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Big kids: Different for everyone…add your weight to 3,300. Bonus: 2,500 kg.
The sky’s the limit: Five hippo grandkids: 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15.