One time horses were a common site pulling carriages, ploughs, long boats etc. Although mostly replaced by machinery these days they still have a role to play and are a familiar site in the country. Not so much for the hippopotamus. So why did hippo power fail to take off like horse power did? With rising gas prices and green issues being a concern is it time to give the hippopotamus another go?
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Ok hippos are slightly dangerous, but thousands are killed in cars every year. There's never once been a massive hippo motorway pile up.
Why didn't hippopotamus power take off like horse power did?
Hippos mostly live in water. They eat water plants. They sunburn. They're also ornery critters. I don't think they can be intimidated.
Horses can survive in herds on their own in various habitats. They can also be domesticated and bred, unlike most African animals like hippos, rhinos, Cape buffalo, and African (as opposed to Asian) elephants. Even zebras are hard to domesticate.
Horses were originally domesticated by people from the Asian Steppes, who then migrated throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They wouldn't have gotten far on hippos, even if there were hippos on the Asian Steppes.
Horses and smart, fast, nimble, and look majestic. Imagine leaping onto your trusty hippo, shouting "Hi ho Silver. Away!" and heroically galloping off. Picture cavalry, cowboys or Arabian princes mounted on hippos. It's really funny to think of statues of people like Alexander the Great, Napoleon, or George Washington poised heroically on their valiant hippos.
Imagine riding a horse across mountains, deserts or prairies. Think of pony express riders or the streets of London crowded with carriages pulled by hippos. Imagine rounding up your herd of hippos or even keeping them corraled. Not to mention cleaning up gigantic piles of wet hippo shit.
If horsepower was only about power, an elephant may have been more appropriate. Imagine a truck with 300 elephant power. But horses were the fastest way to get around, so horsepower is also about speed.
Finally, the word horse has one syllable. Horsepower had a nice ring to it.
I think the power of the Hippo not wishing to take the right turn that you wished , then savagely sitting on you when he did not agree could be part of it. But , who knows if Hippos were trained from birth maybe they could have been pacified? Plus they have a zest for water , so theyd be great in the rain..
South African man Marius Els tried it. He found one abandoned at birth, raised it, and named it Humphrey. He would ride its back and say that it was like a son to him. One day in 2011, Els was found dead with deep wounds all over his body; his "son" Humphrey had killed him.
"If I had asked americans what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse"- Henry Ford.
horse power was a clever marketing idea to sell the idea of cars to the masses of the time based on what they knew. this motor carriage right here is the equvalent to 4 horses !! and at the time most Americans had no idea what a hippo was lol
Well no one knows this but when this first started out they had to feed them every 40ft because they were hungry and this is where the name dog treats came about because the owner had to go out and find dogs to give you a hippo a treat and when nobody could find their dogs anymore and they would see a dog tail in the poop of the hippo poopiness everybody caught wind of it and somebody came up with the bright idea of a taxi
Well, mainly, because of the ENORMOUS piles of shit they leave! Have you ever seen a horse take a shit or piss in a parade! Just imagine ten pounds of shit in the street during a parade. You wanna clean that up "purple". Think about ELEPHANT power, and imagine THOSE piles of shit!!!
Nope, don't go with hippo-power, for two reasons... 1. Horses are faster, 90kph (50 mph), than hippos, 30 kph (18 mph), and guys like to go fast 2. Horses eat hay, which people don't, while hippos eat green vegetables, which people do eat... hippos would affect human food supply Plus, just think how much poop a hippo drops versus a horse.
Probably because they killed way more people when when when we tried get them to pull something. When all the major predators in Africa leave Hippo's alone it would be smart of us to do the same. Wonder if the guy in the picture ended up getting attacked at some point.
A rather odd question, but still, why not imagining the hippo executing jobs. First of all, this animal's character is unpredictable, and secondly, they need water, a lot of water... So, let's stick to the horse, the elephant, the buffalo, etc. ;0)
Hippo's are aggressive. They kill 500 people a year in Africa. My guess is you can't domesticate them like horses. Also they're only in Africa I think? Maybe they're too climate sensitive?
Those things are dangerous; they'd attack you as soon as you got within a hundred feet of them. You especially don't want to be between one and its waterhole...
Because, before cars, nobody rode around in hippo-driven carriages, which the car eventually replaced. Also, hippos are not as fast as horses, or as smart, or as willing to pull carts for us.
There's never been a hippo pile up on the motor way because after. The hippo are the occupants he would have no reason to be in the motor way and would instead looking for water to wash down the family he just ate
Ability to domesticate and ability to train. Unlike horses, hippos cannot be domesticated or trained. We saw the same with zebras, which people tried to train like horses, but were unable to.
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