Hippo Trivia
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49 free Hippo trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free hippo trivia questions with answers. Forty-two questions about the hippopotamus, the river horse that is one of Africa's most dangerous animals and, oddly, a close cousin of whales. The set covers the biology first: how much a bull weighs, why hippos sink rather than swim, how long they can stay under, the red 'blood sweat' that works as sunscreen, their 50 cm canine tusks, and how a calf is born and nursed underwater. It also takes in the pygmy hippo of West Africa and the extinct dwarf hippos of Madagascar. Then it turns to hippos and people: the ancient Egyptian goddess Taweret, the biblical Behemoth, Obaysch, the London Zoo star of 1850, Huberta's trek across South Africa, Pablo Escobar's escaped herd in Colombia, and the internet's favourite hippos, Fiona in Cincinnati and Moo Deng in Thailand. Pop culture rounds it off with Hungry Hungry Hippos, Fantasia's ballerina, Gloria from Madagascar and a 1953 Christmas novelty song. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and shows the sentence that proves it beneath the explanation, so the numbers and names can be trusted for a quiz night or a classroom.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'hippopotamus' comes from Ancient Greek words meaning what?
River horse
River horse, from hippos (horse) and potamos (river): the Greeks' name stuck, even though the animal is not related to horses at all.
Q 02Which group of animals are the closest living relatives of hippos?
Whales and dolphins
Whales and dolphins: scientists long grouped hippos with pigs because of the ridges on their molars, but blood proteins, DNA and fossils all point to whales instead.
Q 03What does a bull hippo spray in a wide arc by wagging its tail?
Its dung
Its dung: neighbouring bulls turn their rear ends and shower droppings and urine about, a habit usually read as a sign that the patch is already taken.
Q 04The hippo is similar in size and weight to which other African heavyweight?
White rhinoceros
White rhinoceros: the two are so evenly matched that reference books disagree over which of them is the second-largest land animal alive.
Q 05Which of George Washington's belongings, wrongly remembered as wooden, was actually carved from hippo tusk?
His dentures
His dentures: dentist John Greenwood carved the base from hippo tusk, added gold springs and left a hole for Washington's one remaining tooth; no wood was ever used.
Q 06Despite living in water, how do hippos actually get around underwater?
They sink and walk along the bottom
They sink and walk along the bottom because their bodies are too dense to float; despite a life spent in rivers, it is doubtful that a hippo can truly swim at all.
Q 07What can a hippo do while asleep underwater, seemingly without waking?
Surface to breathe
Surface to breathe: a hippo can hold its breath for only a few minutes, so a reflex lifts the sleeper up for air and lets it settle again.
Q 08The red 'blood sweat' that oozes from hippo skin works as what?
Sunscreen and antibiotic
Sunscreen and antibiotic in one: the fluid is neither blood nor sweat, and its red and orange pigments absorb ultraviolet light while slowing the growth of bacteria.
Q 09What do hippos mainly use their long, sharp tusks for?
Fighting rivals
Fighting rivals: the tusks play no part in feeding and serve strictly as weapons, and the slashing wounds that bulls give each other can be fatal.
Q 10What makes up almost all of a wild hippo's diet?
Grass
Grass makes up nearly all of it: a hippo grips each mouthful with its tough, wide lips and tears it free with a jerk of the head.
Q 11When do hippos usually come ashore to feed?
After dark
After dark: hippos feed for hours yet eat little for their size, because a day spent resting in the water burns little energy.
Q 12Hippos trotting at top speed briefly do what?
Leave the ground
Leave the ground: a 2024 study of 169 strides from 32 hippos found the animals only ever trot, yet at full tilt all four feet are briefly in the air at once.
Q 13A hippo's wide-open 'yawn' is really what?
A threat display
A threat display: far from sleepy, a gaping hippo is warning an intruder off, and most disputes end there, with the smaller animal backing down.
Q 21Which US president was given Billy, a pygmy hippo, by tire magnate Harvey Firestone in 1927?
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge's Billy went on to breed so successfully that almost every pygmy hippo living in an American zoo today is his descendant.
Q 22Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo who went viral in September 2024, was born at a zoo in which country?
Thailand
Thailand's Khao Kheow Open Zoo let the public choose her name, and more than 20,000 people voted for Moo Deng, which translates as 'bouncy pig'.
Q 23Fiona, the premature hippo calf born in January 2017, became the star of which US zoo?
Cincinnati Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo staff nursed her round the clock after she arrived six weeks early at just 29 pounds, and a children's hospital team came in to fit her drip when she grew dehydrated.
Q 14Where do male hippos hold territories?
In the water only
In the water only: a bull guards his stretch of river or lake for years, yet he lets other males stay so long as they defer to him and leave the breeding alone.
Q 15A hippo calf folds its ears shut to do what underwater?
Suckle
Suckle: its ears fold and its nostrils seal to keep the water out, so the calf can nurse while fully submerged as well as on land.
Q 16Where does a hippo calf often rest in deep water?
Mother's back
Mother's back: a small calf climbs aboard to rest clear of the water, and its mother is fiercely protective, letting nothing else get too close.
Q 17Florida's governor declared Lu the hippo what so he could stay in a park for native wildlife?
Honorary citizen
Honorary citizen: residents rallied to keep the former film and TV animal actor when the state took over Homosassa Springs, and Lu lived on there until his death at 65 in 2025.
Q 18How does the IUCN Red List classify the common hippo?
Vulnerable
Vulnerable: hippos are losing river and wetland habitat to farming and are hunted for their meat and teeth.
Q 19Which of these is a traditional name for a group of hippos?
A bloat
A bloat: a fitting name for the tight-packed crowd, yet the adults lying side by side form almost no lasting bonds with one another.
Q 20The pygmy hippo, the only other living hippo species, survives in the wild mainly in which country?
Liberia
Liberia holds most of them, with a few across its borders; the animal is so shy and forest-bound that outsiders did not learn of it until the 1800s.
Q 24A wild hippo population in Colombia descends from animals kept by which man?
Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar smuggled hippos in for his private zoo; after police shot him dead in 1993 the animals were left to roam, and their descendants have spread along the Magdalena River.
Q 25In 2022 Colombia officially declared its wild hippos what?
An invasive species
An invasive species: the herd, thought to be the biggest outside Africa, had kept growing, and the ruling led to plans to sterilise, relocate or cull the animals.
Q 26Which Egyptian goddess of childbirth was depicted as an upright female hippopotamus?
Taweret
Taweret guarded mothers and babies: Egyptians wore her image on amulets and kept it in household shrines to watch over births and newborns.
Q 27In Egyptian myth, which god takes the form of a hippopotamus to fight Horus?
Set
Set loses: in the tale of their long feud Horus wins contest after contest, and the gods finally award him the throne of Egypt.
Q 28Which beast from the Book of Job is widely thought to be based on the hippopotamus?
Behemoth
Behemoth appears in a Jewish legend in which it battles Leviathan at the end of days, and the righteous then feast on the flesh of both monsters.
Q 29Obaysch, a hippo sent from Egypt in 1850 who inspired the 'Hippopotamus Polka', drew huge crowds to which zoo?
London Zoo
London Zoo drew up to 10,000 people a day to see the first hippo in Europe since Roman times, an animal that Egypt's ruler had traded for several teams of greyhounds.
Q 30Huberta the hippo became a Depression-era celebrity by trekking a great distance across which country?
South Africa
South Africa followed her 1,600 km wander in the newspapers for more than two years; when farmers shot her in 1931 there was a public outcry, and her mounted body went on show in a museum.