THEY might be ungainly on land, but in water it’s a different story – hippos glide gracefully along the river bed using their feet as punts. As they spend relatively long periods “in flight” between punts, their movements resemble those of astronauts in microgravity.
Frank Fish and Brittany Coughlin of West Chester University in Pennsylvania spent hours filming a pair of captive hippos at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey.
Contrary to popular belief, they saw no evidence that hippos actually swim. Instead, they spent most of their time “punting” along the bottom, usually using one or both of their…
