When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red

by rajesh 2010-01-01 12:45:09

RED SWEAT

That interesting, isn't it

When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

The really clever thing about hippos is that they produce their own sunscreen, in the form of a sticky reddish sweat. In fact, the thick red substance, which oozes from glands all over its skin, is one of the hippo's many ingenious survival tools. They found it is made up of two pigments - one red, called "hipposudoric acid"; and the other orange, called "norhipposudoric acid". The scientists believe these two substances are produced from a metabolite of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins). Both pigments act as sun blocks and the red one, they discovered, is a particularly good antibiotic. SRC: BBC.co.uk

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