There is number of reasons for Elephants to lay in mud, blow mud over the body or wallowing; Is to keep cool – protect their skin from the sun or avoid biting insects and sometimes to have fun.

African elephants are their common name, scientific name is Loxodonta, are the largest land animals on Earth, grouped into two species: the savanna (or bush) elephant and the forest elephant.

In average, when live in their nature (wild) they can go up to 13 feet, 7 tons and 70 years. African elephants are slightly larger than Asian Elephants or Asiatic elephant.

Photos courtesy of Shawn and Tonya Mandel

Hippopotamus or Hippo is considered to be the second or third largest land animal after the elephant. In terms of size, look similar to rhino, considered to be Africa’s most dangerous animal, with enormous teeth and aggressive nature.

During the daytime, spend most of their time underwater, about 80% of their lives spend in the water, at sunset they leave the water to graze, eating up to 50kg (110 pounds) of grass. Regardless of their bulky body reaching up to 3,200 kg (3.5 tons), hippo is not among of the big five in Africa.

The phrase “Big 5” refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot, doesn’t have to do with size as some people think, which is why the leopard is on the list and the enormous hippopotamus is not.

Photos courtesy of Shawn and Tonya Mandel