Hippos Recognize Each Other’s Voices, Respond Differently to Calls of Strangers

Hippopotamuses are rather vocal animals. Their “wheeze honk” calls can be heard over long distances, leading researchers to suspect the calls play an important role in maintaining social groups. Now, a study in published in Current Biology on January 24, 2022 shows that hippos recognize each other’s voices. They also respond less aggressively to the calls of a neighbor compared to those of a stranger. The open-access article is titled “Voice-Mediated Interactions in a Megaherbivore.”