Hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius

Hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius

Extant (resident)

Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d’Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Eswatini; Ethiopia; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Kenya; Malawi; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Togo; Uganda; Zambia; Zimbabwe

Extinct

Algeria; Egypt; Eritrea; Liberia; Mauritania

Vulnerable

The primary threats to Common Hippos are habitat loss or degradation and illegal and unregulated hunting for meat and ivory (found in the canine teeth). Habitat loss and conflict with agricultural development and farming are a major problem for hippo conservation in many countries (Brugière et al. 2006, Kanga 2013, Kendall 2013, Brugière and Scholte 2013).

IUCN red list

The Common Hippopotamus (also known as Common Hippos or Hippos) are found in many countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa in suitable wetland habitats.

The species still occupies much of its former range from 1959, although population sizes have declined dramatically. Common Hippos live in rivers throughout the savannah zone of Africa, and main rivers of forest zone in Central Africa.

Common Hippos were already rare in Egypt by the time of the Renaissance. From the end of the Roman Empire up until circa 1700, hippos still lived in the Nile Delta and in the upper Nile. Throughout the 1700s, records become increasingly scarce, and the latest definite records are from the early 1800s (Manlius 2000).

Threats

Common Hippo’s reliance on fresh water habitats appears to put them at odds with human populations and adds to their vulnerability, given the growing pressure on fresh water resources across Africa (WWC 2004).

Habitat loss stems from water diversion related to agricultural development (Cole 1992, Jacobsen and Kleynhaus 1993, Viljoen 1995, Viljoen and Biggs 1998) as well as larger-scale development in and around wetland areas (Jacobsen and Kleynhaus 1993, Harrisonet al. 2007).

In many West and Central African countries, habitat loss has contributed to a growing regional threat of population fragmentation, as isolated and small populations of hippos are confined to protected areas, with poor or even no management and increasing pressure from local communities (Brugière and Scholte 2013).

You can support this beautiful animal

Donate to Virunga National Park which supports and protects a wild population of hippos.

Further Information

Lewison, R. & Pluháček, J. 2017. Hippopotamus amphibius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T10103A18567364. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T10103A18567364.en.

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