Stopping on the edge a hippo pool in the African savannah produces two responses. The first is amazement, especially if there is a group of fifty or more individuals (appropriately called a bloat). They splash, fuss, grunt, and poop. The second response > revulsion > is born of this last action. “Eww! What’s that smell?” someone gasps. We watch in horror as fecal matter is flung from hippo tails rotating like windshield wipers. I respond, “Serengeti perfume.”
Hippos are big. They eat a lot. They also poop a lot. And don’t mind wallering in it.
It is said that hippos don’t digest well. Maybe. But with all that bacteria in the water, their true super-power must be a bullet-proof immune system.
