Hippos beat the burnNature.com, UK - 27 MayThe colourful secrets of hippopotamus sweat have been unlocked. Researchers have identified the chemicals responsible for the ancient myth that the beasts sweat blood.
In reality, hippos' secretions are neither blood nor precisely sweat, but a mixture of pigments that function as both, as well as keeping the animals cool, say Kimiko Hashimoto of Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan....Hashimoto's team used gauze swabs to collect the fluid from the faces and backs of two hippos, Satsuki, a female, and Jiro, a male, living at Ueno Zoological Garden in Tokyo.
