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Wildly Curious?

Are you loaded with questions about the animals you see at the Zoo? If your curiosity is driving you wild, click here to download the low-down on a few of our frequently asked questions.


Surprisingly, not as much as you might think. Despite their enormous weight, hippos eat an average of only 88 pounds (40 kilograms) of food a night (their preferred grazing time). This amount is about 1 to 1.5 percent of their body weight. By comparison, the largest cattle eat 2.5 percent of their body weight each day. While hippos like to feed on patches of short grass (called "hippo lawns") close to water, they must sometimes travel several miles to find food, making long trips on land to new lakes or rivers. Their ears help them hear the sounds of falling fruit and their keen sense of smell helps them sniff out tasty treats. Hippos are mostly inactive unless eating, and this helps them conserve energy and food. They're good at storing reserves, though — hippos can go up to three weeks without eating, if needed.