[chris (OP)]

Meet Hippy and Happy, the two hippos!

HIPPOPOTAMUS.jpg (617.83 kB . 1920x915 - viewed 5023 times)

We were watching a wildlife documentary the other day about hippos in Botswana's Okavango delta. The observation was made during a drought that the animals appeared to be chewing cud, like cows. The hypothesis proposed is that they do this when under food stress to extract additional calories from the food. Cows do this as part of their normal digestion, and then use a sequence of stomachs to stew as many calories out of the grass as possible to feed bacteria, which in turn feed the cow.

So what do hippos do normally? Are they not naturally ruminants, and how many stomachs do they have?

[evan_au]

hippos in Botswana's Okavango delta

Slightly off-topic, but this week I saw a 3D VR video about wildlife in Okavango - you sit on a swivel chair, and can look all around, up and down.

It showed a variety of animals, including elephants, zebras, lions - but only 1 hippo.
- The hippo was a bit grumpy, but the guide managed to scare it off before we discovered how many stomachs it had...

Highly recommended VR experience, if it comes your way...
https://www.nma.gov.au/whats-on/expedition-360-vr

[Colin2B]

The hippo was a bit grumpy, but the guide managed to scare it off before we discovered how many stomachs it had...

If you had virtually hung around you would have discovered that the hippoptumus (hippo to friends) is a pseudo-ruminant having 3 stomachs rather than the 4 of the true ruminant. Apparently they don't ruminate (chew the cud), it all takes place, after the initial crushing, in the stomachs.