Locals fret as Colombia to declare hippos invasive species

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Locals fret as Colombia to declare hippos invasive species

By MARKO ÁLVAREZ and ASTRID SUÁREZ
February 19, 2022

PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia (AP) — Álvaro Molina has had his run-ins with the burly bunch of neighbors with disreputable contacts who showed up about a decade ago along the river in front of his house in Colombia’s Antioquia province. But he’s learned to live with them and says he is worried about a government plan he fears could harm them.

People around Puerto Triunfo have grown accustomed to the herd of hippopotamuses descended from a few that were imported illegally from Africa in the 1980s by flamboyant drug lord Pablo Escobar, whose former ranch is nearby.

Molina, 57, says he supports the hippos even though he is one of the few Colombians to have been attacked by one. He was out fishing one day when he felt a movement beneath his canoe that spilled him into the water.

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Within weeks, Colombia’s government plans to sign a document declaring the hippos an exotic invasive species, according to Environment Minister Carlos Eduardo Correa. This means coming up with a plan for how to control their population, which has reached 130 and is projected hit 400 in eight years if nothing is done as they flourish in Colombia’s rivers.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/colombia-invasive-species-pablo-escobar-a393276ff0903191356c0ce09e712635

[brush]

1. What do they eat? Is there any danger of their population getting out of control and...

unbalancing the ecosystem as they certainly don't have a predator above them in the food chain?

[Eugene]

2. 4 hippos became 130 on their way to becoming 1,400 by 2035.

They eat river vegetation, and they have no natural predators in Colombia nor African droughts to keep them in check.

Pablo Escobar: Why scientists want to kill Colombia's hippos (BBC - Feb. 11, 2021)

-snip-

Numbers are projected to only get bigger. Ms Castelblanco and her peers say the population will reach over 1,400 specimens as early as 2034 without a cull - all of them descended from the original group of a male and three females. In the study, they envisaged an ideal scenario in which 30 animals need to be culled or castrated every year to stop that happening.

Ms Castelblanco explains that the "cocaine hippos" have seized an evolutionary opportunity. They do not have natural predators in South America, meaning they can reproduce much more easily.

The weather also helps: in Africa, the population is in part controlled by droughts that do not take place in Colombia. Indeed, conditions in their South American home seem so ideal for the hippos that studies show they start reproducing at earlier ages, she said.

Scientists studying the hippos' environmental impact believe they could affect the local ecosystem in a number of ways: from displacing native species already under threat of extinction, like the manatee, to altering the chemical compositions of waterways, which could endanger fisheries - though other studies suggest they might help the environment too.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56011594

[brush]

3. Authorities probably need to take steps to control them..maybe even eradicate them as...

they're not a native species. Columbia was doing fine without them.

[Judi Lynn]

4. It sounds as if their human neighbors actually love them, don't want them killed.

The man who was frightened by a female grasped why it happened, and felt no rancor about the event. He seems actually fond of the very large critters! It seems as if that's the general sentiment among the people who share the same environment with them. Very cool!

Locals say the hippos sometimes come out of the water and walk through the streets of the town. When that happens, traffic stops and people keep out of their way.

Hope with so many people wracking their brains for the right answer to the problem of overpopulation, they will arrive at a humane, intelligent solution. I have read in other places they even have considered a drug administered which would work as a birth control answer. That sounds excellent, doesn't it? I'd love to think if they have the heart, they can all arrive at a civilized, admirable idea for keeping the big sweeties, and keeping their numbers from getting out of control.

6,000 pounds! Can you believe it? Wowie! 🦛️🦛️🦛️🦛️🦛️

Outstanding photographs with the article.

Adding photo of a hippo having a night on the town in Northwest Colombia. Not exactly like Pamplona's "running of the bulls":





A "Cocaine Hippo".

[old as dirt]

5. Here's an old video of a baby Colombian Hippo.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Oh, wow! They are definitely cute little fellas as babies! The child was totally unafraid of it,too.

It was somewhat easy for the man to move, even though looking as heavy as a boulder.

Such an interesting little hippo. 🦛️ Thanks, a lot.