Hippos "just a big river cow"

Z

zooman

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
It's got me thinking
Basles "Baby hippo Farasi food for the predators"
Drzoomi "36 hippos at Safari Wild in Israel and not on isis"

Any hippo keepers out there???

Are they just big water cows???
Intelligence?
Relationship with parents?
Why arent Safari Wilds hippos on isis?

Any thoughts?
 
well there name means " river horse!" ahaha, umm, well I think that since they have subsonic clicking communication they are related to whales and Dolphins off a show I watched.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
well there name means " river horse!" ahaha, umm, well I think that since they have subsonic clicking communication they are related to whales and Dolphins off a show I watched.
Click to expand...

Whales and dolphins???????

Hippos are ungulates, hoofstock, artiodactyls. I have never worked with hippos, but from what I hear, socially, they are similiar to white rhinoceros and are definitely a lot smarter than your average cow.
 
yep whales and Dolphins, actually two documenteries I can remember have mentioned that. one of those far'fetched facts!
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
well there name means " river horse!" ahaha, umm, well I think that since they have subsonic clicking communication they are related to whales and Dolphins off a show I watched.
Click to expand...

Okay you get the "Elephant stamp" today ;)

That is so interesting the "hippo subsonic clicking communication". I have googled it without much luck.

Is there comunication a sign of inteligence. Greater than l would give hippos credit for. Or is it the complexity of communication that shows this. As l guess even clams communicate!
 
oh ,ok well, I meant is that they make like clicking noises like Dolphins, and they are the same frequency, sorry subsonic isn't the best word.
 
Reg. "not on ISIS": some zoos just don't have the money; others are just lazy/not interested to participate and update their files. Think of various 'zombie data' entries...
And like I wrote before: I wouldn't overrate the Basel issue...

Closest relatives to Hippopotamids, although nevertheless still member of the Artiodactyla order: cetacea
http://www.pnas.org/content/102/5/1537

Animal "intelligence" is always a very controversial issue for me (as I think our concept of intelligence is too anthropocentric), but cows can be quite "smart", too...
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
oh ,ok well, I meant is that they make like clicking noises like Dolphins, and they are the same frequency, sorry subsonic isn't the best word.
Click to expand...

So the clicking noises are a established form of communication?

Am l right to think that the clicking noises are a way that they talk to each other. Would it be very general like food here or could it be "two mothers showing off who had the smatest offspring".

Just trying to get my head around this. From what you have said you are basing this on 2 documentries so it must be hard.
 
zooman said:
So the clicking noises are a established form of communication?

Am l right to think that the clicking noises are a way that they talk to each other. Would it be very general like food here or could it be "two mothers showing off who had the smatest offspring".

Just trying to get my head around this. From what you have said you are basing this on 2 documentries so it must be hard.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry I 'm not absoultly sure that this is an established fact, but they did measure frequency and determining what sound means what, like you said. They play different clicks like they recorded a ditress click of one pod and then playing it to another pod and all of the group stormed off quickly. Plus they also tried it with a dominece call with a huge male, and played it to another bull and he started to close his mouth nibbling very quickly which is a sign of passiveness.

I'm not complete expert on hippos so I'm not too sure.
 
Link works fine with me...Try www.pnas.org and Search there.

Reg. clicking: William E. Barklow
Low-frequency sounds and amphibious communication in Hippopotamus amphibious

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America -- May 2004 -- Volume 115, Issue 5, p. 2555
 
Its called infrasound (sound waves below our hearing level). Elephants, rhinos, okapi, and I believe giraffes can all communicate via infrasound. However, their communications can reach different levels of frequency. This is why many animals tend to know, before people, of impending earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc. Because earth movements also create infrasound frequencies.

It is also important to note that dolphins and bats dont communicate through infrasound frequencies, but ultrasound.
 
okapikpr said:
It is also important to note that dolphins and bats dont communicate through infrasound frequencies, but ultrasound.
Click to expand...

Could you please explain the differances? Or am l the only one scratching my head?:confused:
 
Ultrasound is above frequencies that humans can hear. Though, the ultrasound frequencies can only travel a short distance, when the sound waves return to its source (ie the bat) it gives the source a detail "image" of what is ahead. Doctors use ultrasound as a non-invasive way to "see" the human body, however the deeper they what to look into the body the less detailed the image.

Infrasound is below frequencies that humans can hear. Infrasound can travel very long distances and through objects (whereas ultrasound cannot so much). However, it is not detailed with information like ultrasound...but it provides basic communication.
 
I also seem to remember Sir David Attenborough in Life on Earth (1979) saying that hippos, or at least whatever creature evolved into the hippos we know today, is very possibly the ancestor of whales.
 
Infrasound = Below our hearing frequency levels & Ultrasound = Above our hearing frequency levels.
 
Hehe, I guess I should have read the second page of posts;)
 
yeah I'm a little confused too, I know bats and Dolphins use their clicks to locate prey, by clickling the sound bounces off the prey and back to them, is this like it?? :confused:
 
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