Hippopotamuses live in sub-Saharan Africa, spending their days in rivers, lakes, and swamps and emerging at night to graze on nearby grasslands. There are two species, and they occupy very different habitats: the common hippo is widespread across eastern and southern Africa’s waterways, while the smaller pygmy hippo is restricted to dense forests in West Africa. A third, unexpected population of common hippos now lives wild in Colombia, descendants of animals imported by a drug lord in the 1990s.
Common Hippos Across Sub-Saharan Africa
The common hippo is found in dozens of countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal and Ethiopia in the north to South Africa in the south. The largest concentrations live along major river systems and lake shorelines in East Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ethiopia’s highland rivers and sanctuaries also support significant populations. Hippos are generally absent from the dense interior of tropical rainforests unless a large river cuts through, giving them access to open water and grazing land along the banks.
Their range extends from near sea level up to about 2,000 meters in elevation. Above that altitude, conditions become unsuitable. In Ethiopia’s Lake Tana region, for example, hippos occupy areas between roughly 1,646 and 1,900 meters, with habitat above 2,000 meters considered too high.
What Makes a Good Hippo Habitat
Hippos are surprisingly picky about their water. They need slow-moving or still freshwater that is about 1.5 to 2 meters deep, shallow enough for them to stand or kneel on the bottom while keeping their nostrils above the surface. Calves especially need this: water that’s too deep or fast-flowing makes it difficult for young hippos to nurse. The ideal shoreline slopes gently, giving the animals easy entry and exit. Deep, steep-banked rivers or lakes with strong currents don’t work well.
Grazing land needs to be close to water, ideally within 2 to 5 kilometers. Hippos follow familiar paths from their daytime water pools to nighttime feeding grounds, typically traveling less than 1.6 kilometers along well-worn trails to reach dense grass along the riverbank. They eat mostly short grasses, though they’ll also consume leaves, bark, and stems. Because hippos need both resting water and nearby grazing, suitable habitat is actually quite limited. One study in southwestern Ethiopia found that only about 23% of a wildlife sanctuary qualified as highly suitable for hippos, with another 18% moderately suitable and the remaining 58% unsuitable.
Human settlement also matters. Hippos do best when towns and villages are at least 5 kilometers away. As human populations expand along African waterways, the overlap between people and hippos grows, which is one of the main pressures on hippo populations today.
A Day in a Hippo’s Life
Hippos split their lives between two habitats on a strict daily cycle. During daylight hours, they stay submerged or partly submerged in water, clustered in groups called pods. Their skin is highly sensitive to sun and dries out quickly, so water serves as both sunscreen and moisturizer. They can hold their breath for up to five minutes, and their eyes, ears, and nostrils sit on top of their heads so they can remain nearly invisible at the surface.
At dusk, they leave the water and walk inland to graze, spending most of the night eating. Despite weighing up to 1,500 kilograms or more, they consume a relatively modest amount of food for their size, roughly 35 to 40 kilograms of grass per night. They return to the water before dawn, following the same trails night after night. These paths become deeply grooved into the landscape and are a telltale sign of hippo territory.
Where Pygmy Hippos Live
The pygmy hippo is a very different animal with very different habitat needs. About a quarter the size of its common cousin, it lives in the Upper Guinea forests of West Africa and is found in only four countries today, though it was once more widespread. Pygmy hippos are solitary and secretive, moving through dense lowland forest and swamp rather than congregating in open rivers. They still depend on water but spend more time on land than common hippos do, sheltering in thick vegetation and wallowing in streams and forest pools.
Their forest habitat is under heavy pressure from logging, farming, and mining, making the pygmy hippo considerably more endangered than the common species. Encountering one in the wild is extremely rare.
The Hippos Living Wild in Colombia
The most surprising hippo population on Earth lives in South America. In the early 1990s, drug lord Pablo Escobar imported a small number of hippos to his private zoo near Medellín, Colombia. After his death, the hippos were left in place, and they escaped into the nearby Magdalena River basin. The warm, year-round water and abundant vegetation turned out to be ideal habitat.
The population has since expanded across roughly 2,000 square kilometers of the Middle Magdalena River basin, spanning several Colombian departments. There have also been unconfirmed sightings in the Lower Magdalena, raising concerns about further range expansion. With no natural predators, plenty of food, and no dry season severe enough to limit breeding, the population has grown rapidly. Projections suggested it could reach approximately 1,500 individuals by 2030 if left unmanaged. Colombian authorities have been working on control measures, including sterilization and relocation programs, but the logistics of managing multi-ton wild animals in a large river system are enormously challenging.
These Colombian hippos are the only known free-ranging hippo population outside of Africa, and their presence is already affecting local ecosystems, including potential competition with native species like the Antillean manatee.