The last few topics have been quite “deep and meaningful”, so today TPP is going with something light and totally useless from a fact point of view.
Did you know that a group of hippos is commonly referred to as a “bloat”? Although they can also be referred to as herds, pods or a school.
The term bloat, is thought to come about for a number of reasons, one of which is that hippos generally look pretty rotund or bloated – in fact so bloated that it looks like they might explode at any given moment. Another is it comes from the Dutch word “bloed”, which means “blood”. This is likely due to the fact that Hippos are often seen in large groups, and the red colour of their skin can make it appear as if they are covered in blood.
Wherever the term comes from, there is good reason why they look bloated – their stomachs are typically full from a diet almost exclusively of grass which they eat and then store for up to three weeks!
And the last fact about hippos is that a typical ‘bloat’ consists of one dominant male hippo and around 10-20 females.
You homework for today is to ponder on a bloat of hippos and go wherever your mind takes you.
Ponder away!
