Zoo Conservation in Latin America

Zorro said:
Perhaps some of the American zoos would love to help out moving them and kick in a few dollars maybe sell any film to animal planet or some other tv show!
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Yeah, maybe... The filming would be more viable perhaps. I've already seen documentaries i animal planet or something about these hippos. They might wanna do another one showing the solution of the problem if it happens.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yeah, it might be too out of hand to transport them, but some of them would probably fit well in some zoos around the continent.

Does somebody know how many individuals they are now and if there's some kind of organization doing something about them?
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I think it might be over a hundred now but I'm not too sure and I don't know if there has been a reliable estimation of the numbers of them.

They are in an area of the Magdalena river which is the principal river that runs through the entire country so from the Andes to the Caribbean coast.

I don't know how far hippos normally disperse in natural conditions in Africa but I remember reading that there are worries that they could move to other regions of the country and colonise.

I posted a thread with a short documentary on this issue a while back. You might find it quite interesting to check out.

Hippos in Colombia documentary
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I think it might be over a hundred now but I'm not too sure and I don't know if there has been a reliable estimation of the numbers of them.

They are in an area of the Magdalena river which is the principal river that runs through the entire country so from the Andes to the Caribbean coast.

I don't know how far hippos normally disperse in natural conditions in Africa but I remember reading that there are worries that they could move to other regions of the country and colonise.

I posted a thread with a short documentary on this issue a while back. You might find it quite interesting to check out.

Hippos in Colombia documentary
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Oh, yes, pretty nice. Gonna read it, definitely. :D This issue always brought me a lot of doubts...
 
After a very quick search I found it.
Mysterious free roaming Hippo captured in southern Mexico.
CTV news.
Locals call him Tyson, in Las chopas veracruz state Mexico march 2019, he was caught and taken to a zoo, nobody knows where he came from!
A photo is included of the 600kg animal :cool:
 
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Zorro said:
After a very quick search I found it.
Mysterious free roaming Hippo captured in southern Mexico.
CTV news.
Locals call him Tyson, in Las chopas veracruz state Mexico march 2019, he was caught and taken to a zoo, nobody knows where he came from!
A photo is included of the 600kg animal :cool:
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Yeah, that is a strange one indeed, but do you think it could have come from Colombia ?

I tend to think that what might have happened is that like the Colombian hippos this individual may have been kept by Narcos and like them escaped from an enclosure.

The thing is that these kind of narco zoos are very common in Mexico. They are almost a must have for wealthy drug barons as a way of showing off status just as they were in Colombia when Pablo Escobar ran the cocaine business.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yeah, that is a strange one indeed, but do you think it could have come from Colombia ?

I tend to think that what might have happened is that like the Colombian hippos this individual may have been kept by Narcos and like them escaped from an enclosure.

The thing is that these kind of narco zoos are very common in Mexico. They are almost a must have for wealthy drug barons as a way of showing off status just as they were in Colombia when Pablo Escobar ran the cocaine business.
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My "guess" is yes likely driven out by some of the older bulls
 
It is a long way to go though even within Colombia as it would have to get down the tributaries of Antioquia and then from there down the main river to the Caribbean.

From the Caribbean sea it would have to swim across and as this hippo was found in Veracruz state it would have had to have swum or floated North to the Gulf coast.

I know that they occasionally swim in the sea and that is how the now extinct hippos got to Madagascar so maybe and it is an interesting possibility and if the current was right then that could be.

But personally I would think that this particular individual probably escaped from a "narco zoo" owned by some member of the Gulf Cartel who operate the drug trafficking in that area of Mexico.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
It is a long way to go though even within Colombia as it would have to get down the tributaries of Antioquia and then from there down the main river to the Caribbean.

From the Caribbean sea it would have to swim across and as this hippo was found in Veracruz state it would have had to have swum or floated North to the Gulf coast.

I know that they occasionally swim in the sea and that is how the now extinct hippos got to Madagascar so maybe and it is an interesting possibility.

But personally I would think that this particular individual probably escaped from a "narco zoo" owned by some member of the Gulf Cartel who operate the drug trafficking in that area of Mexico.
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That could well be the case but I would not rule out the former as they are known to be sea going when its suits!
 
Zorro said:
That could well be the case but I would not rule out the former as they are known to be sea going when its suits!
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The interesting thing is that nobody came forward for it.

The common sense answer would be that if it was owned by a criminal then that is why but actually the Mexican drug cartels practically own chunks of Mexico in terms of corruption.

The gulf cartel is one of the most violent of the Mexican cartels and I don't think a member would have any reason to fear being identified when picking up his AWOL pet hippo.
 
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