Free Republic

Around 5,000 years ago, the island of Madagascar would have resembled a Sci-Fi novel. Strange, prickly forests, gorilla-sized lemurs, pygmy hippopotamuses, horned crocodile and elephant birds whose eggs were 180 times the size of what you'd find in your fridge today, all called the African island home -- that was until the humans arrived.

The Gambia’s minister of Forestry and the Environment, Hon. Jato Sillah has promised the people of Bakadaji in Nianija District of the Central River Region that the government under the leadership of His Excellency, Sheikh Prof. Dr. Alh. Yahya AJJ Jammeh has heard their cry on the incessant attack of hippopotamus on rice farms in the area and other places, and that a solution would soon be proffered. The minister said this during his nationwide tour of forest resources at the Bakadaji Forestry Station in Nianija while responding to a complaint raised by one Sarjo Sillah of Bakadaji who said...

A PYGMY hippopotamus has been shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Northern Territory. The hippo is normally native to the swamps of west Africa, in particular Liberia. The Northern Territory News reports, Nico Courtney, 27, was out spotlighting for pigs with his mate Rusty on a station in the Douglas Daly district 200km south of Darwin on Saturday night. "It was about 1am and running away from us - from the tail end it just looked like a big pig," Mr Courtney said. "We got out, had a look at it, and thought 'that's not a pig,...