Hippos spend the day in the water to keep their body temperature down, and to keep their skin from drying out.
Each night, under the cover of darkness, hippos wade out of their pools and march as far as six miles in search of food.
Hippos spend four to five hours grazing and can consume 150 pounds of grass each night.
They circle around and back to their watery beds several times through the night, finally returning to the water right before the sun rises.
This nightly feeding ritual is well documented, and in some locations the evidence is hard to miss.
Take the Jinja golf course in Uganda, for instance, with its well-kept lawns and manicured greens. The succulent grasses are a huge draw for nearby hippo populations.
Hippo tracks are so prevalent that a local club rule was created to accommodate balls that accidentally land in the deep divot of a hippo footprint.
It allows a player to lift and drop his or her ball, without incurring a penalty.
Don’t try to invoke this rule in New Jersey though. They won’t buy it.
Hippos in the Rough.
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