By Mindy Weisberger, Senior
Writer | May 17, 2018 07:40am ET
On a savanna in southwestern
Kenya, thousands of hippos converge
daily along a stretch of the Mara River, gathering in groups among dozens of
shallow pools, where they sink into the water to protect their sensitive skin
from the sun.
But they aren't there just to
cool down — they also come to poop.
As the hippos wallow, they collectively
expel considerable quantities of waste — an estimated 9.3 tons (8,500
kilograms) of excrement each day, scientists recently reported. Large animals'
feces nourish ecosystems by providing vital nutrients for smaller organisms,
but the sheer volume of hippopotamus dung poses a deadly challenge to fish that
live downstream from these communal toilets, leaving the fish gasping for
oxygen under a deluge of dissolved hippo poo, according to a new study. [How Much of the Ocean Is Whale Pee (and Worse)?]
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