A fascinating story today, about the resilience of the rare pygmy hippo. I'd been hoping it would pop up on a Liberian news site, but it hasn't yet, so here is the Sky News version (click on the post title above to go to the article, as usual). A team of scientists led by the Zoological Society of London recently went to Liberia's Sapo National Park to track the rare and endangered pygmy hippo. 
There are thought to be only 3000 pygmy hippos left in the wild, across Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, so the scientists thought they had their work cut out. However, by placing cameras in the hippo's natural habitat, the scientists quickly discovered that the species is alive and well - despite severe threats to its habitat and a series of civil wars across the region. Once again, it seems, we have an example of nature stubbornly resisting threats to its bounty - and a surprising benefit from today's obsession with electronic surveillance, since both the hippos and any poachers can now be caught on camera... (Photo from said camera via Sky News!)
Monday, March 10, 2008
151: hope for the pygmy hippo
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
What a great tale! (And the pygmy hippos look really cute!) Makes you wonder about all the other species that might be surviving out there unnoticed, or new species evolving into life (although the evidence that the total number of species is declining is overwhelming).
It's really good to see such effort being taken to stop human poaching of endangered animals, too. But I wonder whether there's much human intervention to stop animal-animal poaching? Raises some fascinating questions, and hard to do, I know, but shouldn't we humans try to elevate our species into the police-people of the animal kingdom? There are some vicious animals out there doing some vicious things, but the Discovery Channel et al seem to think we should just let them get on with it!
Post a Comment