This Is How They Clean Hippos’ Teeth

With all this talk about Moo Deng biting people, you might be wondering what really goes on in a hippo’s mouth.

Well, hippos have 36 teeth, among them a few giant ones that are the most pronounced features of their mouths. In the wild, hippos let fish clean their teeth, but at the zoo, they’ve got to let a zookeeper come in with a hose and a brush to scrape the gunk out of every nook and cranny.

Here’s what that process looks like: