In addition to being on the list of the most dangerous animals in the world, the hippopotamus has a very peculiar behavior: spreading poop when it feels threatened and wants to mark territory. It turns out that, according to a study published in the scientific journal Current Biology, the animal can recognize voices. So you know exactly when there is a stranger around.
To arrive at this discovery, the team of researchers traveled to the Maputo Special Reserve in Mozambique and began by recording calls from seven groups of hippos, spread across three different lakes. Each group included from 3 to 22 individuals.
“In addition to showing that hippos are able to identify other hippos based on vocal signatures, our study highlights that groups of hippos are territorial entities that behave less aggressively towards their neighbors than towards strangers,” points out one of the study’s authors. , Nicolas Mathevon, in a statement.
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After the researchers recorded the calls, they started playing these sounds back to the hippos to find out how they would react to their own group, their neighbors on the same lake, or a strange group from a different lake.
The team found that behavioral responses were far more aggressive to recorded sounds from a completely foreign group of animals. In future studies, the researchers hope to learn more about hippo communication.
“Before relocating a group of hippos to a new location, a precaution may be to broadcast their voices from a loudspeaker to groups already present, so that they get used to them and their aggression gradually diminishes,” the researchers conclude.
