Hippowdon is a large, hippo-like Pokémon with skin color based on its gender. It is light brown if male, and bluish-gray if female. It has a dark gray back and muzzle with several small and large holes in them. It has red eyes, a large rounded snout, and a massive mouth that is over 7 feet (2 meters) wide when open. This mouth is filled with peg-like teeth, with the two front teeth on its lower jaw being much longer than the rest. Hippowdon also has black feet with four blunt, flat claws each.
Hippowdon is short-tempered, easily provoked into violence, and may hold its mouth agape as a display of strength. Hippowdon's jaws are capable of crushing cars. Hippowdon stores sand in its body, which is used to create twisters when attacking. Excess sand is expelled out of the ports on Hippowdon's back and nostrils to create room for fresh sand to ingest, in order for it to stay healthy. It has a symbiotic relationship with Dwebble, which clears any stones stuck in its ports while the Hippowdon cares for the Dwebble helping it in exchange. Drapion are known to stay away from Hippowdon. It typically lives in deserts, but can also survive in swampy terrain.
Have you ever seen a Hippowdon blast sand out of the ports of its body? It does that to make room for the fresh sand it'll swallow to keep itself healthy.
Hippowdon, the Heavyweight Pokémon. It creates an enormous tornado of sand by blowing sand out of the holes in its body, and its mouth is over 6 feet in diameter.
A wild male Hippowdon first appeared in Bombastic Bibarel & Heroic Hippopotas, where Dr. Footstep set up a sticky carpet to collect his footprint, "finally" succeeding in extracting one from a Hippowdon. This, however, earned the ire of the Pokémon, which proceeded to send him and the threeSinnohTrainers flying with his Sand Tomb. As a result, Diamond and Platinum landed in the outskirts of Lake Verity, away from Pearl and Footstep, and promptly had to face two Super Nerds hired by Team Galactic to drive out intruders.
Bertha has a female Hippowdon that debuted in Tackling Togekiss. It was used as transportation for Bertha, as well as to carry some books for her Trainer.
Despite having notable gender differences, both Hippowdon and Hippopotas each have only one official Ken Sugimori artwork, Pokémon Global Link artwork, and menu icons (except for those of Pokémon Legends: Arceus), all of which depict the male variations.
Origin
Hippowdon is based on a hippopotamus. Because of the spouts upon its back that constantly spit sands, Hippowdon and its pre-evolved form may be based upon the legendary Bahamut as, in some accounts of the myths behind it, it is said to support a bed of sand and have the head of a hippo.
Name origin
Hippowdon may be a combination of hippopotamus, power, powder (as in sand), or pow (onomatopoeia for a bodily hit), and don (Spanish for lord; Ancient Greek for tooth).
Kabaldon may be a combination of 河馬 kaba (hippopotamus) and don.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.