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The Hippopotamus / Hippo Thread

I know that hippos cause more deaths than any other animal on the African continent. After watching this, you'll understand why (Warning - contains some animal on animal violence, though nothing gory):

The Sheriff of the Animal Kingdom:
 
Horrible Hippo Homicides Herder.

An 81-year-old man has been trampled to death by a hippo in a village in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province, police have said.

Langson Svondero was herding cattle with his grandson on Monday when the hippo charged at him after appearing from a thicket, Masvingo police spokesperson Insp Kudakwashe Dhewa was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying.

“His grandson called out to him but the hippo bit his left leg and he fell to the ground before he could run away.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-47639452
 
ramonmercado said:
Horrible Hippo Homicides Herder.

An 81-year-old man has been trampled to death by a hippo in a village in Zimbabwe's Masvingo province, police have said.

Langson Svondero was herding cattle with his grandson on Monday when the hippo charged at him after appearing from a thicket, Masvingo police spokesperson Insp Kudakwashe Dhewa was quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying.

“His grandson called out to him but the hippo bit his left leg and he fell to the ground before he could run away.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-47639452
Click to expand...

Do they bite then? I thought they just trampled you to death.

('Just' being trampled to death is bad enough of course.)
 
I believe hippos are Africa's most dangerous [to people] animal & responsible for more deaths than lions, hyenas, crocodiles, even meerkats.

They don't have many teeth but they're fast over short distances, can trample & give a nasty gumming.
 
escargot said:
Do they bite then? I thought they just trampled you to death.

('Just' being trampled to death is bad enough of course.)
Click to expand...
They have some nasty teeth and it's a toss up as to weather hippos or Nile crocodiles kill more people than any other large animal that currently exist. During the mating season large adult bull hippos will even fight to the death by mauling - biting one another.
 
Is this really the tooth?

Scientists say they have unearthed evidence hippos roamed Britain much earlier than previously thought.

Excavations at Somerset's Westbury Cave, led by University of Leicester PhD student Neil Adams, uncovered a million-year-old hippo tooth.
It is thought the tooth belonged to an extinct species of hippo found in Europe during the Ice Age.Mr Adams said it was the first known hippo fossil from any site in Britain older than 750,000 years.

The study, published in the Journal of Quaternary Science and co-authored with researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, said the tooth was identified as belonging to an extinct species of hippo called Hippopotamus antiquus. The species was much larger than the modern African hippo and more reliant on aquatic habitats than its living relative.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-58793201
 
EnolaGaia said:
FULL STORY: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...bia-cocaine-hippos-rewilding-experiment-news/

See Also:

Pablo Escobar's hippos keep multiplying and Colombia doesn’t know how to stop it
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pablo-...ying-and-colombia-doesnt-know-how-to-stop-it/

Chasing Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippos’
https://www.latimes.com/environment...ologist-colombia-cocaine-hippos-pablo-escobar
Click to expand...

Sterilisation Solves the problem.

A group of hippos - an unwanted legacy following the death of notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar - are being sterilised.

Escobar, who was shot dead by police in 1993, illegally imported exotic animals, including a male and a female hippo - dubbed the "cocaine hippos". Since then, a growing population has been taking over the countryside near his former ranch, Hacienda Nápoles.

The Colombian government has so far sterilised 24 of more than 80 animals. They have been treated with a chemical that will make them infertile.

Colombian environmentalists say the hippos, believed to be the biggest herd outside Africa, are an invasive species and have pushed away the native fauna.

Many have campaigned for the animals to be culled or sterilised.
Back in 1993, when authorities seized Hacienda Nápoles - Escobar's luxury estate situated about 250km (155 miles) north-west of the capital Bogotá - most of the animals found there were distributed to zoos across the country.
But not the hippos.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58937415
 
Just to add to the above, an interview with the vet sterilising the Escobar hippos:
Article

She says it's scary because they take a lot of tranquilising and their reproductive organs are all internal. Still, something to tell the grandkids. The vet's grandkids, not the hippos'.
 
The Escobar Hippos problem continues.

Colombia considers exporting Escobar's hippos as population growing too quickly​


... Since the hippos escaped after the capo’s death in 1993, the government has repeatedly failed to tame the booming population who have made the Magdalena River basin their new home.

It tried culling the animals in 2009 but had to stop after a graphic photo caused national outrage. It continues to sterilise the hippos, but they are breeding faster than local experts can find, catch and castrate them.

Now the regional government wants to try a new strategy. Like Escobar’s cocaine, they hope Pablo’s pets can be shipped abroad. The government of Antioquia state in north-west Colombia says it is negotiating with a park in India, where it plans to send 60 of the beasts, and a sanctuary in Mexico, where it wants to ship 10.

“It would be a great relief,” Zapata says from the porch of his riverside wooden house by the river. ...

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41092888.html
 
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ramonmercado said:
The Escobar Hippos problem continues.

Colombia considers exporting Escobar's hippos as population growing too quickly​


... Since the hippos escaped after the capo’s death in 1993, the government has repeatedly failed to tame the booming population who have made the Magdalena River basin their new home.

It tried culling the animals in 2009 but had to stop after a graphic photo caused national outrage. It continues to sterilise the hippos, but they are breeding faster than local experts can find, catch and castrate them.

Now the regional government wants to try a new strategy. Like Escobar’s cocaine, they hope Pablo’s pets can be shipped abroad. The government of Antioquia state in north-west Colombia says it is negotiating with a park in India, where it plans to send 60 of the beasts, and a sanctuary in Mexico, where it wants to ship 10.

“It would be a great relief,” Zapata says from the porch of his riverside wooden house by the river. ...

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-41092888.html
Click to expand...

The saga continues. Vid at link.

$3.5m plan to move Colombian drug lord’s hippos​


Colombia has said a plan to move 70 hippos to overseas sanctuaries will cost $3.5 million (£2.8m).

Drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was shot dead by police in 1993, illegally imported exotic animals into the country, including a number of hippos, in the 1980s.

Following his death the hippos roamed free and a growing population, believed to be the biggest herd outside Africa, has been taking over the countryside near his former ranch.

Authorities hope to transfer some of the hippos in the coming months, with 10 bound for Mexico and 60 going to India.


https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-65124063
 
Hippos are unruly boat passengers.
.

A one-year-old child has died and 23 other people are missing after a hippopotamus charged and capsized a canoe on a river in Malawi.

The long-wooden canoe was carrying 37 people across the Shire River towards Mozambique when it was hit by the hippo in the Nsanje District on Monday.

Thirteen people were rescued, according to authorities.

The 23 people missing are feared dead because the search has been going on for more than 24 hours, police spokeswoman Agnes Zalakoma said.

https://news.sky.com/story/child-ki...n-malawi-23-other-people-feared-dead-12882491
 
ramonmercado said:
The saga continues. Vid at link.

$3.5m plan to move Colombian drug lord’s hippos​


Colombia has said a plan to move 70 hippos to overseas sanctuaries will cost $3.5 million (£2.8m).

Drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was shot dead by police in 1993, illegally imported exotic animals into the country, including a number of hippos, in the 1980s.

Following his death the hippos roamed free and a growing population, believed to be the biggest herd outside Africa, has been taking over the countryside near his former ranch.

Authorities hope to transfer some of the hippos in the coming months, with 10 bound for Mexico and 60 going to India.


https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-latin-america-65124063
Click to expand...

Still a growing menace.

Thirty years after Pablo Escobar's death in 1993, the notorious cartel leader's "cocaine hippos" are still wreaking havoc in one of the world's most biodiverse countries.

A new study of the invasive mammals' population in Colombia revealed there could be double the number experts previously estimated, Nature reported. A study in 2021 estimated that there were around 98 individuals, but the more recent census, published in April, puts the population at between 181 and 215.

These hippos are descended from just four adults that were illegally imported by Escobar in 1991 from Africa to his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. Although many of the zoo's other exotic animals — such as giraffes and zebras — were transferred to sanctuaries after Escobar's death, the three female hippos and the one male remained in place due to the challenges of removing them. However, they escaped the abandoned estate and have been living, and rapidly reproducing, in the Magdalena River system ever since.

https://www.livescience.com/animals...ne-hippos-top-200-twice-as-many-as-we-thought
 
ramonmercado said:
Still a growing menace.

Thirty years after Pablo Escobar's death in 1993, the notorious cartel leader's "cocaine hippos" are still wreaking havoc in one of the world's most biodiverse countries.

A new study of the invasive mammals' population in Colombia revealed there could be double the number experts previously estimated, Nature reported. A study in 2021 estimated that there were around 98 individuals, but the more recent census, published in April, puts the population at between 181 and 215.

These hippos are descended from just four adults that were illegally imported by Escobar in 1991 from Africa to his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. Although many of the zoo's other exotic animals — such as giraffes and zebras — were transferred to sanctuaries after Escobar's death, the three female hippos and the one male remained in place due to the challenges of removing them. However, they escaped the abandoned estate and have been living, and rapidly reproducing, in the Magdalena River system ever since.

https://www.livescience.com/animals...ne-hippos-top-200-twice-as-many-as-we-thought
Click to expand...

Yet another plan to cull the hippos. I wonder if it will succeed this time?

Colombia is to cull some of the 166 hippos descended from a herd owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s.

Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said that 20 would be sterilised, others would be transferred abroad - and "some" would be euthanised.

Experts have for years tried to control the hippo numbers.

Escobar imported the animals for his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. They were left to roam after he was killed in a shootout with police in 1993. Authorities have tried various approaches to curb the population explosion in Colombia's main river, the Magdalena, including sterilisation and transferring individuals to zoos abroad. Efforts failed to contain the herd's growth, however, with a lack of predators and the fertile and swampy Antioquia region providing perfect conditions for the native African animal to thrive.

Their fate was sealed when hippos were declared an invasive species last year, opening the door to a cull.

"We are working on the protocol for the export of the animals," Ms Muhamad was quoted as saying by local media. "We are not going to export a single animal if there is no authorisation from the environmental authority of the other country."

https://www.bbc.com/news/67306304
 
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