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Hippos are very rotund animals and are the third largest living land mammals, after elephants and white rhinos, according to Animal Planet. They grow to 10.8 to 16.5 feet (3.3 to 5 meters) long and up to 5.2 feet (1.6 m) tall from hooves to shoulders. The tail adds another 13.75 to 19.75 inches (35 to 50 centimeters) to its length. The average female weighs around 3,000 lbs. (1,400 kilograms) while males weigh 3,500 to 9,920 lbs. (1,600 to 4,500 kg) according to the San Diego Zoo.
This social, group-living mammal is so numerous in some areas that cropping schemes are used to control populations that have become larger than the habitat can sustain. The other, much smaller (440 to 605 pounds) species of hippo is the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis).