To Hippos, a Wheeze and a Honk Mean More Than Just ‘Hello!’

By playing a variety of recordings of “wheeze honks” to pods of hippopotamuses, researchers began to decipher how the animals communicate with one another.

Hippopotamuses are some of the most unfriendly creatures in the animal kingdom.

“Apart from mosquitoes, they are the most dangerous animal in Africa, the ones that kill the most people,” said Nicolas Mathevon, a professor of animal behavior at the University of Saint-Etienne in France. “People underestimate them. They swim very fast and don’t hesitate to attack boats. They are in the water most of the time, but they can move out of the water very fast. Entering their territory can be quite dangerous.”

But you can’t say that hippos don’t give adequate warnings to strangers.