The nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm called the Hippopotamus Optimizer (HO) imitates the social, territorial, and survival strategies of hippopotamuses in both aquatic and terrestrial settings. This research includes important behavioral characteristics including migration between water and land, dominance hierarchy, and cooperative group interactions, the algorithm is made to strike a balance between exploration and exploitation. In order to avoid local optima, hippos travel randomly around the search space during the exploration phase, motivated by their territorial roaming. Hippos refine solutions toward optimality throughout the exploitation phase through social interactions and competitive resource allocation