Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Go Further. Animals Climate change is shrinking many Amazonian birds.
Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help. Environment COP26 nears conclusion with mixed signals and frustration. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big.
Environment As the EU targets emissions cuts, this country has a coal problem. Paid Content How Hong Kong protects its sea sanctuaries.
History Magazine These 3,year-old giants watched over the cemeteries of Sardinia. Science Coronavirus Coverage What families can do now that kids are getting the vaccine. Magazine How one image captures 21 hours of a volcanic eruption. Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops.
Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. Travel A road trip in Burgundy reveals far more than fine wine.
Travel My Hometown In L. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. See how people have imagined life on Mars through history. Most of the hippos live in the man made lakes in Escobar's zoo, but some have broken free and caused trouble. Fishermen on the river are scared of them, as they can do damage to their small fishing boats. Farmers are frustrated because the hippos destroy crops and even crush small cows.
In Africa, their homeland, seasonal droughts prevent too much breeding, keeping population sizes small. But in Colombia, the warm, wet weather is perfect for year-round mating.
Scientists have found that breeding in Colombia also starts much earlier. While African hippos breed between the ages of seven and nine, Colombian hippos get started at the young age of three. I hope this goes well. There has been some discussion of what to do with the herd of rogue hippos, but there doesn't seem to be a good plan in the works. They cannot be sent back to Africa, as they might carry diseases specific to Colombia.
They do not have natural predators in South America, meaning they can reproduce much more easily. The weather also helps: in Africa, the population is in part controlled by droughts that do not take place in Colombia. Indeed, conditions in their South American home seem so ideal for the hippos that studies show they start reproducing at earlier ages, she said.
Scientists studying the hippos' environmental impact believe they could affect the local ecosystem in a number of ways: from displacing native species already under threat of extinction, like the manatee, to altering the chemical compositions of waterways, which could endanger fisheries - though other studies suggest they might help the environment too.
This is not the first group of scientists to call for a cull. But some experts oppose the idea. A sterilisation program would be a better way to control their population, he told CNN. But such procedures are far from simple - or cheap - and Carlos Valderrama has experience of this. In , he performed a castration of a male "cocaine hippo" as part of an experiment to study options to control the growing population.
It was like being with a dinosaur in a Jurassic Park movie. Official government statistics show only four animals underwent sterilisation between and It is simply not possible to reach all of them easily.
Meanwhile, they will keep on reproducing," Mr Valderrama said. So what is stopping the authorities from taking more drastic action? The short answer: public opinion. After Colombian media reported on the study, biologist Nataly Castelblanco started receiving abuse and death threats.
Hippos are also dangerous, and they frequently appear on lists of the world's deadliest animals.
0コメント