← Nat Theo Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible
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Every NAT Theo lesson comes with a free coloring page so you can color as you listen. Download this lesson's coloring page at the link in our show notes and explore every lesson further in the NAT Theo Club or with our Bible and Nature Unit Studies. Enjoy science, the Bible, experiments, arts and crafts, nature journaling, outdoor activities, recipes, geography, video teachings, and more in the NAT Theo Club or Unit Studies. Find it all@natttheo.com Club. Hello world. Wake me up to another good Good morning. Time to go. Are you ready to explore God's wild and wonderful world? Welcome to the naptheo Podcast. I'm your host, Erin Lynam. I'm a certified Master naturalist, Bible teacher and author and I am so excited to dive into God's written word, the Bible and His created world with you. Have you ever heard an animal making a noise but you could not see that animal? Perhaps a bird is singing in a tree above but you can't spot it in the branches. Or maybe a coyote is yipping or howling after sunset in a field nearby, but you cannot see it when I was 14 years old, I spent a summer in Malawi, a country in Africa. I was on a missions trip with other teenagers and adult leaders. We slept in tents all summer long. The camp where we were staying was alongside beautiful Lake Malawi. Although the water looked beautiful and inviting, we were warned by our leaders and the native Africans who lived there to never step foot in the water. Can you guess why there were hippos in the water? While I never had a chance to see the hippos, we certainly heard them grunting at night when they were out foraging for food. It was amazing to hear these massive animals in their native home of Africa. It was also a little bit scary at times because hippos can be aggressive, which means that they can attack. Despite their leisurely lives of wading in water and munching on grass, hippos are fierce. I did not get into the water in Lake Malawi, but today we are diving into the river to discover God's designs and amazing hippos. Here is our trail map. Are you ready? We are going to learn can hippos swim? How strong is a hippo's bite? Do hippos sweat blood? And how can we have thick skin and a soft heart? Before we hit the trail, let's thank our sponsor who helped make this lesson possible. Master Books I love reaching for books that point my family's hearts and minds to Christ. Master Books has so many great books that do exactly that. I'm currently learning all about Dinosaurs from a Biblical Worldview with their colorful dinosaur books, our family has also enjoyed their Marvels of Creation picture books highlighting God's designs in sea creatures, birds and mammals. I love placing books by Master Books on our coffee table and watching my kids flip through them throughout the day as they read or look at pictures. I know their minds are full of wonder as their faith is being nurtured. Click the links in our show notes to grab the Marvels of Creation book pack or browse Master Book's amazing and colorful books about dinosaurs from a Biblical worldview. Find it all in our show notes or@masterbooks.com it's time for our trivia question. What is a group of hippos called A A school B a flock, C A swarm or D a bloat? Again, what is a group of hippos called a school, B flock, C swarm or D bloat? Take a guess and we will find out at the end of today's lesson and at the O Club members. After this lesson, click over to the bonus video where we will answer the question do hippos really spray their poop? You can find that bonus video in your Nattio Club dashboard or at the link in our show notes. All right, let's hit the trail. Do you enjoy swimming? Learning to swim can be be challenging and even frightening at times, but it helps us to stay safe when we are exploring or playing near water. And with practice, swimming can be very fun. You might think that hippos enjoy swimming because they spend most of their time in the water. But hippos cannot swim. They are very large and dense and they simply sink. Hippos live in freshwater habitats including rivers and mangrove swamps in Sub Saharan Africa. After living for a summer in Africa, I can tell you Africa can be very hot and dry. Hippos are very sensitive to sunburn and to their skin drying out. So during the day, when the sun is high and hot overhead, they are almost always in the water. This is where they get their name from. Hippopotamus means river horse, although I don't think they look very much like a horse, do you? Nope. But they are big and they do hang out in rivers. In the evening, as the temperatures cool off, hippos come up on land to forage for food. Hippos spend up to 616 hours a day in the water. They can hold their breath for around five minutes. They can even sleep in the water. God designed them to automatically come up to the surface to breathe even without waking up. They spend all that time in the water. And yet they cannot swim. So how do they get around? They walk. Hippos use their super strong legs to walk along the bottom of a river or lake. Then they push off and come to the surface when they need to. We might not think of the words hippo and graceful in the same sentence, but they certainly look graceful when they're walking or bouncing along the bottom of a river. God designed hippos for life in the water. Their eyes, ears and nostrils are all positioned on the top of their head so that they can poke the top of their head up out of the water to breathe, see and hear. This is especially helpful if they are asleep and they just need to resurface for a breath of air. There are two species of hippos, the common river hippo and the pygmy hippo. The common river hippo is the massive hippo that we often picture when we hear the word hippo or hippopotamus. These can grow to be around five feet tall and around 11 to 16ft long. Females can weigh around 3,000 pounds or 1.3 tons. And males can weigh in at a whopping 9,900 pounds or four and a half tons. The common river hippo lives across sub Saharan Africa in both the eastern and western areas of the continent. There is even a unique group of river hippos who have made their home at the ocean. These hippos have decided that saltwater is more their jam and they are living their best. Hippo lives on Orango island off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. These are sometimes called saltwater hippos, although they are the same species as the common river hippos living in rivers and lakes. The pygmy hippopotamus is much smaller. It is kind of like a hippo mini me and quite cute. They can be around 5.5ft long, so around as long as a bathtub. The pygmy hippo can weigh between 350 and 600 pounds or around 158 kilograms to 272 kilograms. So the pygmy hippo might weigh far less than the larger common river hippo, but the pygmies are still very large animals. Pygmy hippos live in swampy forests in a small area of West Africa. Do you remember why, when I was a teenager, I was told to not get into the water at Lake Malawi in Africa? Because there are hippos in the lake and hippos can be dangerous. Hippos might look squishy and perhaps even maybe cuddly. They spend leisurely days in the water and they munch on grass. They might seem like the cow of the water, minding their own business as they devour up to 100 pounds of grass every day. It might seem like you could walk right up to one, maybe pat it on the head when it pokes its head up out of the water. Nope. But that would be a massive mistake because hippos can be very dangerous. Hippos might eat mostly plants, but they will act aggressively if they feel threatened or in danger, or if they are battling one another. You see, hippos are territorial. Territorial means an animal protects the place where it lives, rests, eats or is raising its babies. A hippo will attack a human boat, crocodile or another hippo if it gets too close, especially a male hippo if it's protecting its group of females and calves or young hippos. Hippos can live in groups of around 10 to 30 hippos, mostly females and young calves. A group might have a few males, but one male is dominant or in charge. A hippo's attack is no joke. Their bite is three times stronger than a lion's bite. A hippo's teeth never stop growing. They grow for their entire lives. Their sharp canine teeth, which are actually a special kind of tooth called a tusk, can grow to be over one and a half feet long or around 50 centimeters long. So around the length of one and a half school rulers. That is a long tooth. Hippos use their long tusks when they are battling each other. Sometimes two male hippos will go to battle to win or keep a territory or group of females. Here is what happens. The two male hippos will stand facing each other with their massive mouths opened wide. This is called gaping. Gaping is how they size each other up. Sometimes the smaller or weaker male hippo will have some sensibility and will back down right away, walking away defeated. And the battle ends before it even really gets started. But other times the battle goes on and it can get intense. The male hippos might bellow loudly, making a lot of noise and swing their massive heads like hammers at each other. They'll use their long canine teeth to slash each other sadly. Sometimes a hippo can be seriously injured or even pass away after such an intense battle. It is a reminder of the broken world that we live in and sin's curse that brought death into the world. But thankfully God gave hippos some great built in protection for these battles or other injuries. What Is this protection? It is called blood sweat. What? You might have heard that hippos sweat blood. But is it true? No, it is not true. But it does look like they sweat blood. And this unique feature is what can save their lives after a brutal battle. Have you ever noticed that hippos sometimes look a little bit pink? This is because they create something in their skin called blood sweat. But despite its name, blood sweat is not blood and it is not sweat. Blood sweat is the nickname for the red oily liquid that comes out of a hippo's skin. Blood sweat is a natural oil and it acts like built in sunscreen and ointment. It helps moisturize their skin, which is very important because remember, hippos are vulnerable to their skin drying out or getting sunburn. So this blood sweat oil, it helps protect them while they are up on land and out in the hot sunshine. The blood sweat oil also protects their skin when they are in the water. Have you ever stayed in the bathtub for a long time and after you got out, you noticed that your fingers were wrinkly and looked kind of like raisins? Hippos stay in the water much longer than we might stay in a bathtub or a pool. They are in the water for around 16 hours a day. So how do they avoid the raisin effect? The blood sweat oil helps repel water so their skin does not become waterlogged. And finally, the blood sweat oil can even save a hippo's life after a brutal battle with another hippo. The oil acts like antibiotic oil, preventing bacterial growth. This helps protect the hippo from getting an infection after it suffers from a cut during a battle. It's kind of like how your parent or caregiver might put antibiotic oil on you after you get a cut or a scratch. It helps keep the injury clean. This is exactly what a hippo's special skin oil does. This skin oil is very special. It is unique to hippos. The oil is still a little bit of a mystery to scientists. After careful study, they have learned a lot about what is inside this oil. They have even identified special pigments that help give the oil its color. These pigments are fragile and they can change quickly. The oil comes out mostly clear, and then it turns red and then brownish. These ingredients in the oil are so unique and special that they are even named after the hippo. The two main color compounds are hyposutaric acid, which, which is the red pigment or color, and norhiposuturic acid, which is the orange pigment. Or color. Scientists can study these compounds in a lab, but hippos make this amazing skin protection naturally. What a testimony to their magnificent designer who creates things that are so detailed, even mysterious, that we are still trying to understand them. God gave hippos exactly what they need to protect their skin. Speaking of their skin, it is very thick. You see, hippos might look a little bit pudgy, but they have very little fat. They are a bit like the bodybuilders of the water, absolutely packed with muscle. That is how they run, walk and bounce so well through the water. And surrounding all of that muscle is thick skin. A hippo's skin can be over 2 inches thick. How thick is that? Think about this. A human's skin is usually about as thin as a few sheets of paper or a small stack of cardstock. But a hippo's skin can be as thick as a small chapter book. If your skin is like a thin jacket, a hippo skin is more like thick leather armor. Because of their thick skin, hippos were once placed in an old category of animals called pachyderms. Pachyderm means thick skinned. Can you guess what other animals were once called? Pachyderms, Elephants, rhinos, tapirs and swine have also been called pachyderms for their thick skin. Pachyderm is not a term used much anymore because scientists found out that it was a little bit too simple to organize these animals together by their thick skin. While they share thick skin in common, they have some very big differences. So they were reorganized into other categories. Even though it's no longer their defining factor, hippos still have thick skin and the perfect way to protect that skin through their blood, sweat, oil. Have you ever heard of having thick skin? Besides, in the context of hippos, someone might say that you should have thick skin. But what does that mean? Having thick skin means being able to stay calm and strong. When someone says something that is unkind or critical, thick skin is kind of like a word picture. It means when someone says something that is unkind, we can let it roll off of us without letting it get to us. Now, let's be clear. Sometimes someone might say something mean to us and it really does hurt. That is when we can talk with them and gently let them know that their words have hurt us and to seek forgiveness and healing. When our feelings are hurt, we can go to God in prayer and ask him to comfort us. God cares about our hearts and he is near when we feel sad or left out or or misunderstood. But there are also good times to have thick skin. If someone teases us for believing that God made the world or says something unkind about our faith, we do not need to let their words make us doubt what we know is true. We can ask God to help us stay gentle, brave and firm. Having thick skin. It does not mean pretending that those words don't hurt. Instead, it means trusting God with our hurt and not letting other people's words pull us away from Him. Proverbs 19:11 says the wise are patient they will be honored if they ignore insults. Listener we can have thick skin and soft hearts at the same time. That means that we don't let other people's words tear us down. But we are sensitive to God's voice, quick to love others and willing to forgive. 1st Peter 3:9 gives us great instructions for living at peace with other followers of Jesus and having a soft heart towards them. Listen carefully. Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as bright brothers and sisters. Be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude. Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do and he will grant you his blessing. Here's an example of this from my life if someone leaves a negative review on my books or podcast or a teasing comment on social media because I believe God made the world, I can have thick skin. By quickly moving on and not dwelling on those mean words, I turn it into an opportunity to pray, asking God to soften that person's heart so they can be open to his truth and goodness and love. But in another situation, if a friend or family member says something that hurts my feelings, I can have a soft heart. By being honest and letting them know that they hurt my feelings, I can seek forgiveness and restoration in that relationship. Can you think of a time in your life when you might need to have thick skin to ignore a mean comment or a soft heart to seek forgiveness and restoration? Having both thick skin and a soft heart helps us to stay firm in faith as we keep our relationships with friends and family healthy. Listener if someone insults us or says something hurtful, we should ask ourselves this important does that person know God and have his love inside of them? If that person does not know God, we can have thick skin by ignoring the insult and asking God to comfort us and praying for that person to come to know God. If that person does know God, we can have a soft heart by going to them and talking through our hurt feelings and practicing forgiveness. Let's wrap up with these wonderful words from Romans 12, verses 9 and 10 and 14, which show us how to have both thick skin and a soft heart. Don't just pretend to love others, really love them. Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse. Curse them. Pray that God will bless them. It's time to answer a question from one of our listeners. Here is today's question. Hi, my name is Phoebe. I am a 6 year old and I live in Colorado. My question is why can we hear the ocean through the seashells? That's a really good question, Phoebe. Why can we hear the ocean through seashells? When you press a big spiral shell close to your ear, it can sound like you are hearing the rhythm of ocean waves. But is that actually what you are hearing? No, not unless you're standing next to the ocean. You're not hearing the ocean through the seashell held by your ear. Instead, what you are hearing is the background noises of wherever you are. Those noises are magnified by God's wonderful design of tough, twisty seashells. You see, sound travels in waves. When sound waves hit the hard, curved surface inside of a seashell, the waves bounce back and around, boosting certain sounds. This is kind of how a guitar works. The hollow body of a guitar boosts or amplifies the sounds from the vibrating guitar strings. It might be disappointing to learn that you cannot actually hear the ocean's waves inside of a seashell, but God's wonderful designs and seashells enable us to enjoy what sounds like waves crashing on the shore, which is truly a beautiful sound. Thank you for your great question, Phoebe. Stay curious about God's wild and wonderful world and at the Oak Club members remember, after this lesson, click over to the bonus video where we will answer the question, do hippos raise, really spray and fling their poop? Find that bonus video in your Nat Theo Club dashboard or at the link in our show notes. All right, it's time to answer our trivia question. What is a group of hippos called A a school, b a flock, c a swarm, or D a bloat? The answer is D. A group of hippos is often called a bloat. Other terms used for a group of hippos can include a herd, crash or pod. But I think a bloat of hippos has a fun ring to it. Now it's your turn to explore. Go look for creatures in the water with an adult. Visit a river, pond or lake. Can you find animals? How do they move through the water? Can you see a fish using its fins to swim through the water? Or maybe a water strider walking on top of the water's surface? Or a frog using its legs to stroke through the water? Watch and marvel at how God has designed different creatures to move through the water, including muscle packed hippos walking up along the bottom of a river or lake. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this lesson on the hippo, please take a moment to send it to a friend and subscribe. Rate and review Nat Theo wherever you listen. Until next time, keep exploring God's wild and wonderful world. We are all looking for adventure. We are all looking for adventure.