Pygmy Hippopotamus

The pygmy hippopotamus, or pygmy hippo, is a small hippopotamid native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast; it has been extirpated from Nigeria and possibly Guinea-Bissau. Reclusive and nocturnal, it is one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae, the other being its much larger relative the common hippopotamus, and although it shows many terrestrial adaptations it remains semiaquatic, relying on water to keep its skin moist and its body cool; it is herbivorous, feeding on ferns, broad-leaved plants, grasses and fruit found in the forest. Unknown outside West Africa until the nineteenth century and introduced to zoos in the early twentieth, it breeds well in captivity, and in a 2015 assessment the IUCN estimated fewer than 2,500 pygmy hippos remain in the wild, threatened primarily by habitat loss, poaching and hunting for bushmeat.