Let’s start the day off by reminiscing about the nice warm summer days. You get your picnic basket, beach towel, football and head down to the beach. Once you get there you realize that you completely forgot your sunscreen! You don’t want to burn in the hot heat of the sun so what do you do? Well, I don’t know what you should do but I do know that Hippo’s never have to worry about this. No, it isn’t just because hippos’ don’t spend nice and relaxing days at the beach, it is because they can create their own sunscreen.
As you may know, the hippopotamus lives in Africa and must deal with extreme heat. In order to protect itself from the sun it will produce a red-coloured secretion, often referred to as blood-sweat, however, this substance is neither blood or sweat. So what the heck is it then? Well, it is a colourless secretion that turns a red-orange colour in minutes before eventually turning to brown. It has been identified that the light absorption of this secretion is very high in the ultraviolet range which allows it to act as an effective sunscreen. As well, this secretion also prevents the growth of several disease growing bacteria. Let’s see your regular sunscreen do that! I am not too sure what the SPF of Hippo Screen is but the next time you forget your sunscreen at the house, just try borrowing some from your friendly neighbourhood hippo.
After considerable observation of the hippo, we came to the conclusion that they used mud for protection from the sun. I guess they just wanna have fun while in the sun!
Two of your faithful followers have mentioned that your posts brought back memories – make that four faithful followers. Several of your posts have reminded us of a terrific trip. Thank you.
You sure are lucky to have had the opportunity to observe the hippo for such a long time. An African adventure is definitely on my “Bucket List”. As well, I am very happy that these posts are bringing back memories for my readers. You never want to lose those memories and I am just glad to make sure this never happens.
As far as hippos’ throwing mud on themselves. The mud may very well protect them from the sun. They will also spend time in muddy water to protect them from the harsh rays of the sun. I would think the reasoning behind the mud is similar to a pig’s motive for playing in it. The mud generally helps keep these animals cooler during the hot days of summer.
Thanks for the question and for sharing your observations!
Have a great weekend!
Very interesting Nathan. They say the more time you spend outside in the sun your skin will look old and leathery. Well this big fellow sure has a leathery look to him. I noticed some hair on his face, does his whole body have bits of hair or is it smooth?
Thanks buddy!
Good morning!
Interesting question to start things off today. Hippos are relatively smooth and actually have few hairs on their body. They do have coarse (broom-like) whiskers on their lips As well, they have some fuzzy hairs around their ears and on their tail. Other than that though, they are smooth.
Thanks for the question!
Nathan,
man thet gives them avon ladys a real go for the money don’t it. skin so soft hippo style. how cool it thet then.
bess says hi
HUGS
hahaha! I never thought about the Avon ladies losing out on their door to door sales because of the hippo. Now I am picturing a Hippo going door to door selling sunscreen products!
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to say hi to Bess for me!
I already knew this! And I’m 14! He he! Although I didn’t really know the color, I heard it on tv a long time ago. And I remembered it. That happens to me. I here weird things and I remember them!
It is funny how you remember the strangest things, eh? Do you remember any other interesting animal facts that could be used for the site? Let me know if you!
Thanks for reading!
Did you know that white cats with blue eyes are deaf? No all cats that are white with blue eyes are deaf though. I’m not sure how it happens, but I think it’s interesting. If you already knew this, oh well!
Thanks for the interesting fact, Anml_lvr. It is much appreciated. I would like to expand a little on this fact though. You are right when you say not all white, blue-eyed cats are deaf, but there is definitely a higher correlation between deafness and white cats with blue eyes. The reasoning all has to do with genetics. I won’t get into the finer details but there is basically a gene/gene complex that dictates that the cat will be white, blue-eyed and deaf. When this gene gets expressed then you have your white, blue-eyed deaf cat. So why aren’t all white, blue-eyed cats deaf?? Great question! Well, you see this one gene complex is not the only gene complex that dictates these physical characteristics. It is possible that the “colour” gene will be white and the “eye colour” gene will be blue. This is two different gene complexes and is not the same as the “White, blue-eyed, deaf” gene complex.
I have tried to break this down in simple terms but it is not an easy topic to explain. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Again, thanks for this great question! I am sure a lot of people did not know this.
P.S. Odd eye cats (one blue eye) will also display deafness in the ear on the same side as the blue eye. This again has to do with that genetic make up of the cat.
WOW! – you’re getting quite a following. I’ll have to make more time to read all the comments. Hippo news is news to me, I thought mud did the sun screening.
Getting some comments are definitely nice since I always love seeing what my readers are thinking. Glad you liked the hippo news. I am sure the mud helps with sun screening but it is not their only line of defense!
I hope you had a great weekend!