Photo of a hippo resurfacing to breathe in Kenya's Lake Naivasha.

Lake Naivasha, Rift Valley, Kenya, East Africa

Hippopotamus
Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adult hippos are not generally buoyant. When in deep water, they usually propel themselves by leaps, pushing off from the bottom. They move at speeds up to 8 km/h (5 mph) in water. Young hippos are buoyant and more often move by swimming, propelling themselves with kicks of their back legs. Adult hippos typically resurface to breathe every 4–6 minutes. The young have to breathe every two to three minutes.[4] The process of surfacing and breathing is automatic, and even a hippo sleeping underwater will rise and breathe without waking. A hippo closes its nostrils when it submerges. One hippo calf survived after being pushed out to sea during the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and was rescued on a nearby sandy reef.[31]

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