Posted on 06/05/2023 12:27:40 PM PDT by Red Badger
The most comprehensive census yet reveals that there could be twice as many of the invasive animals than previous estimates indicated.
Colombia’s invasive hippo population is even larger than researchers had thought, according to the most thorough census of the animals conducted yet. Scientists were already concerned about the hippos — considered the largest invasive animal in the world — threatening native plants and animals in the country, and had been calling for drastic measures to reduce the population. The census results have only heightened that fear.
A few years ago, researchers estimated how fast the animals were reproducing, to project that about 98 hippos were living along the country’s Magdalena River and its tributaries in 20201. But the new study, for which a research team counted the animals in person, by drone and using other tracking methods, estimates that there are 181–215 of them residing in Colombia.
“Before, one argument against dealing with the hippos was that our information was limited and our arguments theoretical,” says ecologist Rafael Moreno, who participated in the study while at the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute in Bogotá. “But we have put that argument to bed now. This study shows that this is a real issue, and that the state must act urgently.”
By drone and on foot Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are all descendants of three females and one male illegally imported by drug-cartel leader Pablo Escobar. After he died in the 1993, the hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) escaped from his estate and established themselves in the Magdalena River. Without the natural predators or droughts of their native Africa to keep them in check, the giant herbivores have bred rapidly to form the largest population of the animals outside that continent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Pablo’s ‘legacy’.
OK, new movie: Cocaine Bear vs. Cocaine Hippo
I like that “after he died in 1993”. Died. Yeah.
Cocaine Hippos causing problems? No worries. Just get some cocaine cowboys to round them up.
The world needs more hippo teeth dice.
They are invasive. They are huge. “Experts” know how many they are and where they are... Sounds like Hippo is on the menu. Shoot them and cook them.
Well, we can’t have outrage, can we ? Let the hippos thrive !
Duh. When the Colombia government was reporting 100 hippos for 5 years, it was obviously wrong.
The hippos didn’t actually deal or take cocaine.
They need to pass some HIPPA legislation; it’s worked here.
Our problem is not an abundance of hippos, but rather an abundance of r[h]inos.
IMHO best scene from Narcos Mexico
Felix meets Pablo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daxFDX4RXLI
“Hippopotamus don’t like Mexicans either”
Cocaine Cowboys? You mean, liberTARDians? Cause, they’re always stoked on crack. We’ve got a herd of them infesting FR.
That would last all of 25 seconds. You’d be lucky to find enough parts to figure out what kind of bear it was.
Having seen hippos in the wild and up close (well,maybe not *that* close) they sure look like they’d be hard to corral. Seems to me that the only reasonable solution is to kill them.
If there are people in Columbia...or elsewhere...who want to protect them maybe they’d put up one or two of them.
An adult hippo can feed a small African village for ~30 days... heh.
They forgot to mention he was riddled with bullets on a rooftop.
Sounds like they could supply many zoos or nature parks . A shipload of hippos headed for the motherland. That would be nice, but I won’t rule out someone harvesting them.
Spend some time researching hippos in the wild.Harvesting? Can’t see that working.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.