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December 17, 2005

The Virunga National Park Dung Drought

29,000: The number of hippos in Virunga National Park 25 years ago
850: The number of hippos in Virunga National Park today

Hippos were once considered common in Africa, rather like bulfrogs congregate around ponds in the rural United States. But the hippos are in a very dramtic decline due to the bushmeat trade, the blackmarket ivory trade, global warming, war and disease. For the first time ever, the large herbivore is facing extinction.

And with them, many other dependent species may soon join them.

Hippos in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are on the verge of extinction due to widespread poaching for hippo teeth and meat, conservationists warn.

The park was once home to the world's largest hippo population... But years of civil war and rampant poaching have inflicted a terrible toll on the area's wildlife.

...

The dramatic fall in hippo numbers has resulted in a rapid decline of the Lake Edward's fish stocks, because hippo dung provides vital nutrients for fish.

"The situation is dire," said Robert Muir, the DRC representative of the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Germany. "There is every possibility that the remaining hippos will be shot and killed in the next year or two."

...

"Hippos are being killed by soldiers and local militia, as well as local poachers," Languy said.

...

"Hippos not only consume lots of grass, but they digest it and deposit it into the aquatic ecosystem, thus fertilizing it," he said.

Each hippo dumps some 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of dung into Lake Edward every day. The dung feeds microscopic plankton, which are consumed by worms and larvae. They in turn feed the lake's tilapia fish, the mainstay of the thousands of fishers who live inside the park.

"The equation is clear: Less hippos means less manure, less manure means less fish, and less fish obviously means huge problems

More At: Hippos And Precious Dung Vanishing From African Lake

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Posted by sorsha at December 17, 2005 11:52 PM