The “truth”

Despite being land mammals that are extremely well adapted to spending much of their time in water, and their closest evolutionary relatives being whales and porpoises, hippos can’t actually swim. what they can do very well is hold their breath by closing their nostrils, which means that if they want to get from one part of the river to another they simply walk along the bed, under water. their webbed feet help them bound or skip, just lightly pushing off from the bottom. when spending time underwater, a hippo will automatically bob up to the surface every three to five minutes to take in air – even when it is fast asleep. Having filled its lungs, it sinks down again, using breathing and body position to control its buoyancy. and when it’s time to get out of the water, hippos don’t swim for the shore – they walk to the shallows and climb out.