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Пишет golos_dobra (![[info]](http://lj.rossia.org/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small} lj_golos_dobra)@ 2014-07-14 21:48:00 |
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окончательное решение бегемотского вопроса согласно бибиси
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-2790574
hippos: A growing problem
When Hacienda Napoles was confiscated in the early 1990s,
Escobar's menagerie was dispersed to zoos around the country.
But not the hippos.
But not the hippos.
But not the hippos.
For about two decades, they have wallowed in their soupy lake
How much the hippos like Colombia can be judged from how much sex they are having. In Africa they usually become sexually active between the ages of seven and nine for males, and nine and 11 for females, but Pablo Escobar's hippos are becoming sexually active as young as three. All the fertile females are reported to be giving birth to a calf every year.
"It's just like this crazy wildlife experiment that we're left with," says San Diego University ecologist Rebecca Lewison. "Gosh! I hope this goes well."
Valderrama, whose job until recently included watching over the hippos in the Magdalena, has seen animals up to 250km (155 miles) away from Hacienda Napoles. Fishermen are terrified of the three-tonne herbivores, he says. At night, the animals roam the countryside, wandering into ranches, eating crops and occasionally crushing small cows.
For Carlos Valderrama, however doing nothing is not an option. "We have seen that hippos are very territorial and very aggressive," he says. "They are not a tame animal. The risk for local populations to just leave them to browse around will be huge."
The ideal solution would be to relocate them, he says.
Some - including those at the Hacienda Napoles park - favour containing the numbers with a programme of castration. But not only would this be costly and dangerous for the vets, it's thought many hippos would die.
Hildebrand has another, more radical solution: "I think they should barbecue them and eat them."
He isn't joking. During experiments with electric fences a while ago, he recalls, someone misjudged the voltage and electrocuted one of the Hacienda Napoles hippos. "What did the local people do? They took him, they chopped him up, they barbecued him and they ate him!" The animal is said to have tasted similar to pork.
Valderrama doesn't recommend eating the meat, in case it is infected with a transmittable disease - one dead hippo was found to be carrying leptospirosis which can cause meningitis - but he does see the complete elimination of male hippos as the most practical solution.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-2790574
hippos: A growing problem
When Hacienda Napoles was confiscated in the early 1990s,
Escobar's menagerie was dispersed to zoos around the country.
But not the hippos.
But not the hippos.
But not the hippos.
For about two decades, they have wallowed in their soupy lake
How much the hippos like Colombia can be judged from how much sex they are having. In Africa they usually become sexually active between the ages of seven and nine for males, and nine and 11 for females, but Pablo Escobar's hippos are becoming sexually active as young as three. All the fertile females are reported to be giving birth to a calf every year.
"It's just like this crazy wildlife experiment that we're left with," says San Diego University ecologist Rebecca Lewison. "Gosh! I hope this goes well."
Valderrama, whose job until recently included watching over the hippos in the Magdalena, has seen animals up to 250km (155 miles) away from Hacienda Napoles. Fishermen are terrified of the three-tonne herbivores, he says. At night, the animals roam the countryside, wandering into ranches, eating crops and occasionally crushing small cows.
For Carlos Valderrama, however doing nothing is not an option. "We have seen that hippos are very territorial and very aggressive," he says. "They are not a tame animal. The risk for local populations to just leave them to browse around will be huge."
The ideal solution would be to relocate them, he says.
Some - including those at the Hacienda Napoles park - favour containing the numbers with a programme of castration. But not only would this be costly and dangerous for the vets, it's thought many hippos would die.
Hildebrand has another, more radical solution: "I think they should barbecue them and eat them."
He isn't joking. During experiments with electric fences a while ago, he recalls, someone misjudged the voltage and electrocuted one of the Hacienda Napoles hippos. "What did the local people do? They took him, they chopped him up, they barbecued him and they ate him!" The animal is said to have tasted similar to pork.
Valderrama doesn't recommend eating the meat, in case it is infected with a transmittable disease - one dead hippo was found to be carrying leptospirosis which can cause meningitis - but he does see the complete elimination of male hippos as the most practical solution.
