Hippopotamus

Pygmy hippos were discovered relatively recently in 1913, when an agent for a German animal collector caught several specimens and sent them back to Europe.

The smaller pygmy hippo is proportioned more like a pig than the common hippo. Pygmy hippos reach a height of only about 3 ft (1 m), a length of 5 ft (1.5 m), and weigh only about 500 lb (227 kg). The oily black skin has a greenish tinge, with lighter colors, even yellow-green, on its underparts.

Unlike the common hippo, the pygmy hippo's eyes do not bulge out and it has only one set of incisors. The skin contains glands that give off an oil that looks reddish in sunlight, a characteristic which prompted sideshow claims that the pygmy hippo sweated blood. The oil keeps the animal's skin from drying out. Pygmy hippos' skin dries out very easily, so they live within an easy stride of water. Pygmy hippo calves are born after a seven month gestation, weigh less than 10 lb (4.5 kg), and have to be taught to swim.