Hippos in Colombia documentary

Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Interesting independently made documentary about the population of invasive hippos in the Magdalena river in Antioquia, Colombia.

Enjoy ! :)

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I have read about this before and it is really interesting how Pablo Escobar had them in a zoo. But when he was killed they were left there and just broke through the fences and spread throughout Colombia. I think the video talked about this a little bit but these hippos are different from the African ones because they are less aggressive and bigger because they have no predators.
 
Westcoastperson said:
I have read about this before and it is really interesting how Pablo Escobar had them in a zoo. But when he was killed they were left there and just broke through the fences and spread throughout Colombia. I think the video talked about this a little bit but these hippos are different from the African ones because they are less aggressive and bigger because they have no predators.
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Yes, thats right, that is their origin story.

I don't know if they are any less aggressive than the African hippos but as the documentary mentions there haven't been any incidents of people getting hurt (yet...).

Out of curiosity, what do you think should be done with this particular invasive species in Colombia ?
 
birdsandbats said:
I think they should all be removed immediately, before they their numbers get too large to control.
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I agree, in my opinion they should definitely be removed.

I do understand why locals feel fond of them though. I also agree with people who say that it is no fault of the hippos that they were brought to Central Colombia from somewhere in Africa to be the exotic status symbols of a drug baron and happened to escape.

However, I do think that they need to be removed through either lethal means or through capture and being returned to captivity or a combination of both. Its a wonder they haven't been snapped up by zoos outside of Colombia as they have a bit of fame / notoriety that surrounds them and they are large African megafauna afterall.
 
Westcoastperson said:
They should definitely be removed the problem is getting rid of certain animals can be difficult. Don't forget Australia tried to do something very similar with emus and lost
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Yes, I agree, it is exceptionally hard to remove invasives.

However, these are obviously not exactly cryptic animals like brown rats or weasels due to their colossal size and even though the population has grown it is still localized within this one department of Colombia.

I would say that the timing appears to be as good as any to begin to eradicate / capture these animals (and timing is always key with invasive species) and I really don't think it would be the hardest thing in the world to eliminate them. I think the chief obstacle to doing this is perhaps mainly the political / social / economic will to do this which is clearly lacking.

Are you referring to the "emu war" ?

I don't know much about it other than the basics but I thought that this...ahem :rolleyes:... "war" was more about the culling of emus for some kind of agricultural reason rather than as invasives. Afterall, the emu is native to the Australian outback so it can hardly be viewed as an invasive species in its natural habitat.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Are you referring to the "emu war" ?

I don't know much about it other than the basics but I thought that this...ahem :rolleyes:... "war" was more about the culling of emus for some kind of agricultural reason rather than as invasives. Afterall, the emu is native to the Australian outback so it can hardly be viewed as an invasive species in its natural habitat.
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This video explains the emu war pretty well :p:

 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, I agree, it is exceptionally hard to remove invasives.

However, these are obviously not exactly cryptic animals like brown rats or weasels due to their colossal size and even though the population has grown it is still localized within this one department of Colombia.

I would say that the timing appears to be as good as any to begin to eradicate / capture these animals (and timing is always key with invasive species) and I really don't think it would be the hardest thing in the world to eliminate them. I think the chief obstacle to doing this is perhaps mainly the political / social / economic will to do this which is clearly lacking.

Are you referring to the "emu war" ?

I don't know much about it other than the basics but I thought that this...ahem :rolleyes:... "war" was more about the culling of emus for some kind of agricultural reason rather than as invasives. Afterall, the emu is native to the Australian outback so it can hardly be viewed as an invasive species in its natural habitat.
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They were attempting to get rid of all the emus in the region but they failed. The problem with getting rid of Hippos is that they are STRONG so just shooting them could be hard.
 
There was a talk a while back about castrating males to try and limit the growth in numbers. TBH its all a bit too late to do anything other than cull the animals if they become a problem.
 
Westcoastperson said:
They were attempting to get rid of all the emus in the region but they failed. The problem with getting rid of Hippos is that they are STRONG so just shooting them could be hard.
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I really think that the Colombian millitary (I think they were once going to be drafted into controlling the hippo numbers) are carrying sufficient fire power / weaponry to destroy hippos.

taun said:
There was a talk a while back about castrating males to try and limit the growth in numbers. TBH its all a bit too late to do anything other than cull the animals if they become a problem.
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Yes, I tend to agree with that point that you've made.
 
Perhaps there could be an international market for the Hippos for zoos Hippos appear to be less common in collections than they use to be there could even be tv or film rights in the capture and shipping of them out of the country!
 
Zorro said:
Perhaps there could be an international market for the Hippos for zoos Hippos appear to be less common in collections than they use to be there could even be tv or film rights in the capture and shipping of them out of the country!
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It would be nice if zoos were to snap these up I agree.

However, I do think that Tuan is right that lethal control may have to be a large part of any strategy to control them as there are a fair amount of them out there in the Magdalena river now and I doubt that it would be possible to find homes in zoos for over 100 animals.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
It would be nice if zoos were to snap these up I agree.

However, I do think that Tuan is right that lethal control may have to be a large part of any strategy to control them as there are a fair amount of them out there in the Magdalena river now and I doubt that it would be possible to find homes in zoos for over 100 animals.
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I agree it would be real hard to home all I was never of the mind that would happen but picking out the younger animals for export to zoos could be done the aged animals could be culled. I believe even in parts of Africa Hippo numbers are down and gone in some places. In our own country Hippos are in very sort supply and dwindling in number where out of the two zoos holding them one has no bulls at present.
 
Zorro said:
I agree it would be real hard to home all I was never of the mind that would happen but picking out the younger animals for export to zoos could be done the aged animals could be culled. I believe even in parts of Africa Hippo numbers are down and gone in some places. In our own country Hippos are in very sort supply and dwindling in number where out of the two zoos holding them one has no bulls at present.
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I think it would maybe be a good (and ethical) way to source new younger animals for these zoos.

Afterall its much better than culling the younger individuals right ?
 
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