Hippos and Fish

Many fish rely on hippos to keep their habitat healthy.  After hippos feed on the land, they return to the river where they make a lot of poop.  All this poop may seem disgusting but it helps the plants to grow.  The plants make good homes and hiding places for small fish.  Larger fish start to come looking for little fish to eat.  Pretty soon, a whole ecosystem can start to develop.  Many fishermen complain about the dangers of hippos flipping fishing boats, but in some rivers, there might not be anymore fish for the fishermen to catch if there were no more hippos. Hippos sometimes even help out fish when they travel on land.  When hippos leave the water to search for food, they always wander back and forth along the same paths.  Over time, the trails they create can become deeply worn and act like irrigation cannals diverting water from the rivers to the valleys.  During periods of seasonal floods, some fish will follow the hippo trails to the flooded plains to lay their eggs and then return to the rivers.  When the floods recede, the flooded plains become ponds isolated from the rest of the river.  The eggs are able to hatch and the young fish can live their first year safely away from the larger predatory fish in the river.

A hippo trail filled with water connecting a river with the flood plains

Return to the JUST FOR KIDS...