Few animals that aren't meant to breathe underwater, love the wet stuff quite as much as the hippopotamus. The second largest land animal after the elephant, a hippo spends most of the day in the water, unless it's very cool weather, at which time they laze on the bank of a stream or pond. This is their way of regulating their body temperature in naturally hot climates, since they don't have the sweat glands of other species. Hippos drink some of that water too, up to 250 liters, or a little over 55 gallons.
The hippo is a social animal within its own group, with females only departing to give birth, and imprint themselves on the calf for 1-2 weeks, before returning to the unit. They will even share babysitting duties when night falls and the mothers need to travel to find food, with one or two cows standing guard over the current crop of young ones.
As social as they are within their own species, they can be annoyed by human invasions, and most times will give some kind of warning. Blowing the nostrils while in the water, or scooping and seeming to gulp water while staring at a predator/human are usually signs that they are upset. And don't fool yourself about their size, which can average 1.5 tons for a female and twice that for a male. They may be big, but they can also come out of the water faster than many humans would expect.
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