In the News...
January 2005
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This month's stories:

SA Gospel Singer Killed by Hippo

Mosibudi Mahlo, 23, a South African gospel singer who released her first album in November was trampled to death by a hippo on 29 December 2004. According to Department of Environmental Affairs official, Maruleng councillor Moshilo Popela, the hippo was shot two days later. "The fear was it would go on and do more damage," Popela said, adding that it was the first time someone had been attacked by a hippo in the area.  


General manager of the department of economic development, environment and tourism, Dr Shibu Rampedi, said once an animal was classified as "damage-causing", it was either relocated, or if that was not possible, shot.

Hippos are often reported to charge humans, typically at night, causing injuries or deaths when the hippos perceive humans are blocking their paths back to the waterways.

Sources: News24 (online) - 3 January 2005
08-02-05 S

Zambian Farmers Fearful of Hippos

Peasant farmers in Kitwe's Kakolo farming area are increasingly fearful over a population of hippos that are causing public safety concerns and reportedly destroying crops.

The peasant farmers living across the Kafue river near the former presidential guest house in Ndeke township, were now fearing to go to their fields because the population of hippos had grown.

Farmers' representative Dailes Phiri said more than 15 hippos and their young ones had been destroying crops, and scaring the farmers away from their fields.

She said last year, farmers faced the same problem which they reported to the office of the district commissioner.

Sources: The Times of Zambia via AllAfrica.com - 7 Jan 05
08-02-05

The Tortoise and the Hippo?

A 300 kg (660 lb) hippo nicknamed Owen has developed a rather unlikely relationship. After being swept Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, he was separated from his mother. At less than a year old, chances of survival look grim for the calf and so he was rescued by wildlife rangers. He was released into the Haller Park animal facility in the port city of Mombasa where he immediately went in search of a "mother figure." Owen's choice? A 120-year-old giant male Aldabran tortoise named Mzee - Swahili for "old man." 

According to Haller Park ecologist Paula Kahumbu said the two are now inseparable. "It is incredible. . . . The tortoise seems to be very happy with being a mother," said Kahumbu. They swim, eat and sleep together. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

However, Owen's relationship with Mzee may be short lived. Plans are afoot to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo.

Sources: Yahoo News - 6 Jan 05; ENN (online) - 11 Jan 05; Boston Herald (online) - 11 Jan 05
08-02-05

Ugandan Anthrax Update

The anthrax outbreak that killed at least 200 hippos in and around Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park in the second half of 2004 is apparently still not completely under control. Eighteen hippo deaths have been confirmed in January with another two reported by locals.

This outbreak is concerning wildlife officials because the deaths have occurred over a relatively widespread area of the park. Hippos can contract the disease when they eat vegetation in dry parts of the year. Anthrax spores can remain dormant in the soil for years.

Dr. Nicholas Kauta, chairman of the Ugandan government's anthrax taskforce, has said stool samples have been taken to confirm the outbreak. Meanwhile, villagers living in the park are being instructed not to scavenge for hippo meat as the disease could then pass to the people. He said, the villagers have responded well to the message and have agreed to forgo this usual practice.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to approximately one half of Uganda's estimated 10,000 hippos.

Sources: Majtenyi, C. of VOA News (online) - 31 Jan 05; Tenywa, G. of New Vision - 31 Jan 05; Jang News Group - 31 Jan 05
08-02-05

Baseball Hall of Famer Hunts Hippos; Raises Ire

Newly elected Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Wade Boggs has raised several eyebrows with comments regarding his activities in an African hunting club. The group, Safari Club International (SCI), has awarded Boggs with a "Diamond Grand Slam" for killing 70 animals including hippos, crocodiles, lions, and leopards.

According to the Boston Herald, Boggs was not available for comment regarding the occasion, however he reportedly told the St. Petersburg Times, "The hippo had killed three villagers and the crocodile had killed two kids, so I was sort of the Great White Hunter who came in and saved the village."

Some animal rights activists have disagreed with Boggs' self-assessment. ``He's a pretty vile individual contrary to his deity status in baseball,'' said animal rights activist Bob MacKay. 

Commercial hunting programs are used in many parts of Africa as a means to control the overpopulation of species in ever-dwindling regions of habitat as well as to generate revenue for the parks and local wildlife programs. Nevertheless, questions often arise as to if all the money reaches the intended recipients.

SCI claims that its members promote conservation. They often donate trophies to museums and members are kicked out if they are found breaking laws. Other SCI members include retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former Seattle Seahawks owner Kenneth Behring and former President George H.W. Bush.

Sources: Wedge, D. of the Boston Herald (online) - 6 and 7 Jan 2005
08-02-05

More Hippo/Whale Links

The question of what hippos are taxonomically related to has been controversial for many years. Classically, results of the fossil studies have concluded that hippos are closely related to pigs. However, DNA studies, which often garner more credibility, have pointed in the direction of the cetaceans (i.e., whales and dolphins). The real problem, though, with the conclusions of the DNA studies is that they introduce a nearly 40 million year evolutionary gap in determining which species represented the missing links.

However a new fossil study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science is providing evidence to align with the fossil and DNA records as well as to fill in the evolutionary blanks. The study by paleontologists from teams from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Poitiers in France and the University of N'djamena in Chad compared the skull features of 10 species of hippos, whales and pigs. 

The team found significant similarities between hippos and the most hippolike members of a very diverse animal group called anthracotheres. Antracotheres formed 37 disting genera around the world. Some resembled pigs and others resembled camels. All but one of these genera are believed to have died out at least 2.5 million years ago. However, if the new theory is correct, one survived and divided again to eventually become the two genera of extant hippopotamus (Hippopotamus and Hexaprotodon).

Sources: Reuters - 24 January 05; Baltimore Sun (online) - 30 Jan 05.
08-02-05

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