Don’t be fooled by appearances! An elephant, with its gentle demeanor, and the seemingly sluggish hippopotamus holds more than meets the eye. Elephants are seen as a symbol of strength and power, however, the title of Africa’s most dangerous animal is taken by the hippopotamus.
Step into their world and be amazed by their unexpected abilities and the intricate tapestry of these social animals. Prepare to have your preconceptions challenged as we delve into the secrets of these African giants.
Image credit: Byrdyak on freepik (left), Winfried Wisniewski/Getty Images (right)
Elephant vs. Hippo: Main Differences
Appearance: Hippos are dense with barrel-shaped bodies, small ears, thick legs, and sharp canine teeth. Elephants, on the other hand, are far larger: the largest living land mammals on Earth. They have wide tampering ears, long trunks, and famous sharp ivory tusks they use for fighting and marking their territory.
Size: Elephants are heavier, reaching 5.7 to 7.6 tons. Male hippos weigh up to 1,500 kg or 3,310 lb.
Habitat: Elephants live in a broader range of habitats. This includes deserts, savannahs, scrub forests, and more. Hippos prefer areas around lakes and rivers. But, the majority of the hippo and elephant population is in Africa.
Diet: Both animals are herbivores. Elephants have a more diverse diet, especially among the African and Asian species.
We’ll explore these differences and exciting facts about these two animals below.
Who Would Win?
In a hypothetical clash between a prime, fully-grown bull elephant and a similarly healthy adult hippopotamus on neutral, open terrain, the elephant would likely emerge as the victor. This is primarily due to the elephant’s significant size and strength advantage. Its ability to charge with immense force, trample its opponent, and utilize its tusks as formidable weapons would pose a significant challenge for the hippo to overcome. The elephant’s tusks, in particular, serve as powerful tools for both offense and defense. They can be used to inflict serious injuries, potentially even overturning a hippopotamus, rendering it vulnerable.
Furthermore, elephants possess higher cognitive abilities and are known for their strategic thinking and adaptability. This intelligence could allow an elephant to analyze the situation, identify the hippo’s weaknesses, and adjust its fighting style accordingly. For instance, the elephant might use its trunk to maneuver the hippo or target vulnerable areas.
However, it’s crucial to reiterate that this is a hypothetical scenario under specific conditions. In reality, numerous variables could dramatically influence the outcome of such a confrontation. A hippo’s aggression, agility in certain environments (like water or mud), and powerful jaws equipped with sharp teeth should never be underestimated. A well-placed bite from a hippo could inflict severe damage, potentially turning the tide of the battle. Additionally, factors like individual health, fighting experience, and the presence of herds or groups could significantly alter the dynamics of the encounter.
Elephant
Elephants are a keystone species within the Earth’s ecosystems. They are also the largest land animals. They are well-known for their incredible tusks, trunk, big ears, and intelligence.
Currently, there are three living species of elephant:
- African bush elephant
- African forest elephant
- Asian elephant
Of the three elephant species, the African bush elephant is the largest. Males are between ten and eleven feet tall and weigh between 5.7 and 7.6 tons. Females of the same species grow up to nine feet in height and weigh four tons.
Asian elephants are slightly smaller, with males growing to around nine feet tall and weighing five tons. Females can be eight feet in height and weigh up to 3.4 tons. The smallest species is the African forest elephant. They reach heights of seven feet seven inches and weigh around 2.5 tons.
Elephants have tough, grey-to-brown thick skin when they’re fully grown. The three species can vary slightly regarding the exact pigmentation of their skin. However, the Asian elephant is considered to have more hair coverage than the African elephant.
Often, elephants are seen covered in mud. This is a technique that they use to protect their skin from sun damage, insect bites, and loss of moisture.
Their large tusks are a modification of the second incisors that they develop at a young age. They are used for digging, fighting, marking trees, and more. They are an integral part of the elephant’s body and are, unfortunately, often a target of poachers.
Elephants possess a sophisticated communication system that combines long-distance infrasonic vocalizations and chemical signals with short-range vocalizations, chemical cues, and visual and tactile displays. This multifaceted communication network is crucial for maintaining their complex social structure, facilitating mate location, and ensuring group cohesion.
The elephant’s truck is part nose and part upper lip. The trunk is an incredibly useful appendage that the elephant can use to touch other elephants, pick up objects, breathe, and smell. They’re thought to have an incredible sense of smell, up to four times as powerful as the most skilled dog species.
Elephants are well-known for their matriarchal, tightly-knit groups that depend on a hierarchical social structure as well as for their incredible intelligence. Scientists have ranked elephants as comparable to dolphins regarding problem-solving, memory, and more.
Habitat
Elephants have a wide variety of habitats they prefer. They can be found in deserts, marshes, lakeshores, and high and low elevations.
Commonly, African elephants live in savannahs and Asian elephants in scrub forests.
Diet
Elephants are herbivores. This means they eat everything from leaves to fruit, bark, and roots. African elephants spend more time browsing or feeding on leaves and other high-growing plants. Asian elephants are considered grazers, they feed on low-growing plants like grass.
Incredibly, elephants can eat as much as 330 pounds (250 kg) of food and drink up to 11 gallons (40 L) of water in a day.
When feeding, elephants are non-confrontational. This means that they can feed alongside other herbivores peacefully.
Reproduction
Elephants have a complex reproductive process characterized by long gestation and extended maternal care. After internal fertilization, females undergo the longest gestation period of any mammal, lasting a remarkable 22 months.
They typically give birth to a single calf, born relatively well-developed but still heavily reliant on its mother. Maternal care is extensive, with mothers nursing their calves for several years and providing protection and guidance within the herd’s social structure.
This prolonged care contributes to elephants’ slow reproductive rates and makes them vulnerable to population decline.
Threats
Elephants’ natural predators are few and far between, especially when it comes to the African bush elephant. They are so large that as many as thirty lions have been documented attempting to bring a single juvenile male down. The smallest elephant calves are far easier prey. The young are under threat from hyenas, lions, wild dogs, and in Asia, tigers.
In 2020 in Asia, the IUCN added Asian elephants to their list as Endangered. They cite a troubling statistic that nearly 50% of the population has declined in recent generations. There are believed to be between 40-50,000 Asian elephants left. But, some hopeful studies suggest that populations are increasing in protected areas.
In 2021, African bush elephants and African forest elephants had their statuses updated by the IUCN. The latter was listed as Critically Endangered, and the former as Endangered.
Elephants are still hunted, despite many protected areas throughout Asia and Africa, for their tusks, skin, and meat. Throughout history, various cultures have utilized parts of elephants in rituals and everyday life. Today, the majority of the poaching happens intending to remove an elephant’s tusks and sell the highly valuable ivory.
Elephants also face threats from habitat loss, encroachment and destruction, and the effects of climate change, like drought.
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus, commonly known as the hippo, is a large mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is semi-aquatic, meaning that, unlike its African counterpart, the elephant, it lives part of its life in the water. They are also well-known for their incredible and sometimes intimidating speed. They can reach up to 19 mph (30 km/h) over short distances.
Hippos are the third-largest land mammal after the elephant and the rhinoceros. There are only two living members of the family Hippopotamidae. They are:
- Common hippopotamus
- River hippopotamus
The hippo’s closest living relative is not, in fact, the elephant or rhinoceros, nor is it the pig (despite the visual resemblance). They are most closely related to whales and dolphins.
Hippos are large mammals with wide mouths, large teeth, canine tusks, thick short legs, and dark-colored skin. Males weigh up to 1,500 kg or 3,310 lb, and females weigh up to 1,300 kg or 2,870 lb. The largest recorded male hippo was an incredible 5,860 lb.
They have a barrel-shaped body. They also have short tails, long muzzles, and dense bones. Their low center of gravity allows them to move easily along the bottom of the water, an attribute that other megafauna species, like the elephant, do not share. Their adeptness in the water is furthered through their unusual, webbed feet. They are not known to be particularly good swimmers (nor can they float due to their low center of gravity).
Hippos also live in groups of up to thirty members but they follow a more common patriarchal order. The dominant male has the right to mate with any of the female hippos in the group.
Habitat
The hippo is known as a megaherbivore. This means that, like elephants, it is an exceptionally large land mammal that eats plants.
When in water, the hippo generally prefers to stay where it can easily remain at the surface or reach land quickly. This is due to their low swimming ability. They can spend up to five minutes underwater before surfacing to breathe.
Diet
In the wild, their diet consists almost entirely of grass. They can eat up to 88 lb (40 kg) of grass in a night before returning to the water in the morning. There have been a few rare occasions in which hippos have been observed eating carrion or already dead animals.
Like elephants, they have a significant impact on the areas in which they live and feed. This is due to their immense size and the large amount of grass they consume daily.
Reproduction
Hippopotamuses also exhibit unique reproductive traits. Unlike elephants, they reproduce in the water. After internal fertilization, females undergo an 8-month gestation period. Birthing also occurs underwater, with the calf instinctively swimming to the surface for its first breath.
Mothers are fiercely protective and nurse their young for up to a year, often within the safety of a group. Hippos have a relatively high reproductive rate compared to elephants, but habitat loss and poaching pose significant threats to their populations.
Threats
Like elephants, there are few natural predators hippos have to be concerned about. Far more dangerous are their interactions with humans and the effects of climate change. Habitat destruction and encroachment constantly threaten hippos’ natural range.
Sadly, hippopotamuses also face poaching and legal hunting practices that have resulted in a steep delicate in their population numbers. With bans on elephant hunting becoming more prevalent, some hunters have turned to hippos and their ivory canine teeth as an alternative.
In other cases, hippos are pushed out of their habitats by new settlements and roads, leading to further population decline.
Ocean Insights: Hear From Our Experts
By Hamna Faizan
Marine Life Researcher and Lecturer, with an MSc in Zoology
The awe of spotting a herd of majestic elephants across the African savannah or catching a glimpse of a pod of hippos submerged in a river is a sight to behold for everyone. However, these incredible creatures face constant threats. Elephants, especially the young ones, are mercilessly hunted for their ivory. Hippos are targeted for their teeth, which are sold on the black market. It's heartbreaking to think that these animals, which have roamed the Earth for millions of years, could disappear within our lifetime.
FAQs
Which is deadlier, an elephant or a hippo?
Of the two, the elephant is far more dangerous despite the hippo’s reputation. Elephants are larger, growing up to eleven feet in height, and have tusks that, if threatened, they can use to fight.
What are the best places to see elephants and hippos in Tanzania?
Tanzania offers a wealth of opportunities to witness both elephants and hippos in their natural habitats. For elephants, consider Tarangire National Park (dry season is ideal), Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, or Ruaha National Park. To see hippos, try Serengeti’s Grumeti River or Retima Hippo Pool, Ngorongoro Crater’s hippo pools, Lake Manyara National Park, or Tarangire National Park’s river and waterholes.
Can a tiger kill an elephant?
Alone, a tiger could kill a juvenile Asian elephant. But elephants are so much larger than any of their surrounding predators that it is unlikely.
Do crocodiles eat hippos?
Crocodiles are known to eat hippo calves. But full-grown adult hippos are too large and too dangerous for crocodiles to prey on.
How do elephants and hippos contribute to their ecosystems?
Both play crucial ecological roles. Elephants act as “ecosystem engineers,” shaping landscapes by clearing vegetation, creating pathways, and dispersing seeds through their dung. They also dig waterholes that benefit other species.
Hippos transport nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through their feeding and waste deposition. Their wallowing behavior helps maintain waterholes and create microhabitats for other organisms.
