Hippopotamus Mother and Baby
Learning days
When a baby hippopotamus starts to walk, it often tries to move away
from its mother. Then she pushes it back with her big nose. Soon, the
baby learns to walk near its mother, so that she can protect it.
Learning to stay near its mother is just one of many things a baby
hippopotamus must learn. Baby clays are learning clays for hippos and
all other mammals. That’s when they learn the things that will help them
stay alive as babies and as grown-ups.
Different kinds of mammal babies learn different ways of life. Seals
will spend most of their lives in the water. Baby seals learn to swim by
riding on their mothers’
backs. Lion cubs, which will live by hunting, watch their mothers hunt.
Baby bears learn what’s good for them to eat by seeing their mother
gobble berries and snatch fish out of streams.
Baby mammals learn from their mothers, although most mammal mothers
don’t really try to teach things to their babies. The babies watch their
mothers and do the things they see her do.
A day comes when the baby mammal is nearly grown-up. It has learned how
to find food and how to keep out of danger. It has learned to stay
alive. Then its mother may drive it away. That’s what mother moose and
beaver do when their young ones are ready to live on their own.
