Hippopotamus: Endangered Species Essay, Research Paper
Jason Wapiennik
Mr. Trippeer, Biology
January 6th, 1997
The Hippopotamus: Endangered Species Report
The ban on elephant ivory trading has slowed down the poaching of elephants, but
now poachers are getting their ivory from another creature, the hippopotamus. For
the poacher, the hippo is an easy target. They stay together for long hours in muddy
water pools, as many as eighty-one can be found in a single square mile. This
concentration is so big it’s only second to that of the elephant. Poachers kill the
animal, then pick out the teeth and sell them for as much as seventy dollars per kilo.
This is a very cheap price. Elephant ivory sells for as much as five-hundred dollars
per kilo. The reason the price-per-kilo is so slow is because hippo ivory is very
brittle compared to the much stronger elephant ivory.
Elephant ivory is no longer at the biggest risk for poaching; hippo ivory is. Eastern
Zaire once had one of the largest hippo populations in the world, around 23,000
hippos. According to a count done in 1994, this number has now dropped to
11,000. The 1989 ban on elephant ivory is the main cause attributed to the
exponential rise to hippo ivory trade.
“European and African activists are petitioning advocacy groups, including last
week’s annual Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Florida,
for a ban on hippo poaching. But they say they’re a long way from putting an end to
the slaughter.” (Howard & Koehl)
The hippopotamus is an enormous amphibious animal with smooth, hairless skin.
Hippos can be found in Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and a few can also be found in
Sierra Leone and Guinea. Hippos used to be found anywhere south of the Sahara
Desert where they could find enough water and plenty of room to graze. Now, due
to poachers and predation they are confined to protected areas, but they can still
sometimes be seen in many major rivers and swamps.
Hippos need water that is deep enough to cover them, but it also has to be very close
to a pasture. They must wallow in the water because their thin, hairless skin is
vulnerable to overheating and dehydration. Hippos were once thought to sweat
blood. Actually, hippos secrete a pinkish colored oil that helps them keep their skin
moist in the hot African climate.
Hippos are herbivores. They prefer the short grass of African plains to any other
possible food. They normally eat up to eighty-eight pounds of this grass nightly,
which they mow away a large patch at a time with their twenty-inch muscular lips.
Hippos spend most of their days in the water or wallowing in the mud, only coming
up on land to feed at night.
Hippos defecate in the water. Their dung provides essential basic elements for the
food chain. Tiny microorganisms feed on it and then larger animals feed on those
organisms. On land, hippos’ large bodies make trails through the vegetation that
other animals may use for easy access to water holes. Because hippos’ favorite food
is short grass, they keep these grasses well-trimmed which may help to prevent grass
fires. Hippos are an important part of the African ecosystem.
If the hippos become extinct, and the likelihood grows more and more each day, the
repercussions it may have on the fragile African ecosystem are tremendous. Imagine
a brush fire consuming acres of previously-livable land under the hot African sun.
These people have no way to put out fires like we do here in the U.S… The fires in
California were barely maintainable. In short, if the hippos die, everything
dependent on the hippo and it’s way-of-life also suffers.
Bibliography
Brust, Beth W. Zoobooks: Hippos. San Diego: Wildlife Education, Ltd., 1989.
Estes, Richard. The Safari Companion. Simon & Schuster, 1991.
MacDonald, David (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Vol. 2. London: George,
Allen & Unwin, 1984.
Redmond, Ian. “Africa’s Four Legged Whale,” Wildlife Conservastion. Jan.-Feb.
1991, pp 60-69.