[ECOLOG-L] Hippos in Columbia
This story from the New York Times, September 11, 2009, raises issues relevant to the list! Bill Silvert Colombia Confronts Drug Lord's Legacy: Hippos By SIMON ROMERO DORADAL, Colombia - Even in Colombia, a country known for its paramilitary death squads, this hunting party stood out: more than a dozen soldiers from a Colombian Army battalion, two Porsche salesmen armed with long-range rifles, their assistant, and a taxidermist. They stalked Pepe through the backlands of Colombia for three days in June before executing him in a clearing about 60 miles from here with shots to his head and heart. But after a snapshot emerged of soldiers posing over his carcass, the group suddenly found itself on the defensive. As it turned out, Pepe - a hippopotamus who escaped from his birthplace near the pleasure palace built here by the slain drug lord Pablo Escobar - had a following of his own. The meticulously organized operation to hunt Pepe down, carried out with the help of environmentalists, has become the focus of an unusually fierce debate over animal rights and the containment of invasive species in a country still struggling to address a broad range of rights violations during four decades of protracted war with guerrillas. "In Colombia, there is no documented case of an attack against people or that they damaged any crops," said Aníbal Vallejo, president of the Society for the Protection of Animals in Medellín, referring to the hippos. "No sufficient motive to sacrifice one of these animals has emerged in the 28 years since Pablo Escobar brought them to his hacienda." Sixteen years after the infamous Mr. Escobar was gunned down on a Medellín rooftop in a manhunt, Colombia is still wrestling with the mess he made. Wildlife experts from Africa brought here to study Colombia's growing numbers of hippos, a legacy of Mr. Escobar's excesses, have in recent days bolstered the government's plan to prevent them - by force, if necessary - from spreading into areas along the nation's principal river. But some animal-rights activists are so opposed to the idea of killing them that they have called for the firing of President Álvaro Uribe's environment minister. Peter Morkel, a consultant for the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Tanzania, compared the potential for the hippos to disrupt Colombian ecosystems to the agitation caused by alien species elsewhere, like goats on the Galápagos Islands, cats on Marion Island between Antarctica and South Africa, or pythons in Florida. "Colombia is absolute paradise for hippos, with its climate, vegetation and no natural predators," Mr. Morkel said. "But as much as I love hippos, they are an alien species and extremely dangerous to people who disrupt them," he continued. "Since castration of the males is very difficult, the only realistic option is to shoot those found off the hacienda." The uproar has its roots in 1981, when Mr. Escobar was busy assembling a luxurious retreat here called Hacienda Nápoles that included a Mediterranean-style mansion, swimming pools, a 1,000-seat bull ring and an airstrip. "He needed a tranquil place to unwind with his family," said Fernando Montoya, 57, a sculptor from Medellín who built giant statues here of Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs for Mr. Escobar. Hired by private administrators of the seized estate, part of which is now a theme park (imagine mixing "Jurassic Park" and "Scarface" into a theme), Mr. Montoya rebuilt the same statues after looters tore them apart searching for hidden booty. But Mr. Escobar was not content with just fake dinosaurs and bullfights. In what ecologists describe as possibly the continent's most ambitious effort to assemble a collection of species foreign to South America, he imported animals like zebras, giraffes, kangaroos, rhinoceroses and, of course, hippopotamuses. Some of the animals died or were transferred to zoos around the time Mr. Escobar was killed. But the hippos largely stayed put, flourishing in the artificial lakes dug at Mr. Escobar's behest. Carlos Palacio, 54, head of animal husbandry at Nápoles, said Mr. Escobar started in 1981 with four hippos. Now, he said, at least 28 live on the estate. "With our current level of six births a year set to climb, we could easily have more than 100 hippos on this hacienda in a decade," Mr. Palacio said. "Some experts see this herd as a treasure of the natural world in case Africa's hippo population suffers a sharp decline," Mr. Palacio continued. "Others view our growth as a kind of time bomb." The number of hippos on the hacienda could have reached 31 had Pepe, the slain hippo, not clashed about three years ago with the herd's dominant hippo, then left with a mate for other pastures. Once established near Puerto Berrío, the mate gave birth to a calf. Faced with the possibility of a nascent colony away from Nápoles, Colombian authorities decided to act. After all, hipp
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Hippos in Columbia
Hi All, I´m sorry, I know this is not an "ecological" response but since this is a common mistake the more people aware of it the better. It is not Col*U*mbia, is Col*O*mbia. Thanks Juan 2009/9/11 Bill Silvert > This story from the New York Times, September 11, 2009, raises issues > relevant to the list! > > Bill Silvert > Colombia Confronts Drug Lord's Legacy: Hippos > By SIMON ROMERO > DORADAL, Colombia - Even in Colombia, a country known for its paramilitary > death squads, this hunting party stood out: more than a dozen soldiers from > a Colombian Army battalion, two Porsche salesmen armed with long-range > rifles, their assistant, and a taxidermist. > > They stalked Pepe through the backlands of Colombia for three days in June > before executing him in a clearing about 60 miles from here with shots to > his head and heart. But after a snapshot emerged of soldiers posing over his > carcass, the group suddenly found itself on the defensive. > > As it turned out, Pepe - a hippopotamus who escaped from his birthplace > near the pleasure palace built here by the slain drug lord Pablo Escobar - > had a following of his own. > > The meticulously organized operation to hunt Pepe down, carried out with > the help of environmentalists, has become the focus of an unusually fierce > debate over animal rights and the containment of invasive species in a > country still struggling to address a broad range of rights violations > during four decades of protracted war with guerrillas. > > "In Colombia, there is no documented case of an attack against people or > that they damaged any crops," said Aníbal Vallejo, president of the Society > for the Protection of Animals in Medellín, referring to the hippos. "No > sufficient motive to sacrifice one of these animals has emerged in the 28 > years since Pablo Escobar brought them to his hacienda." > > Sixteen years after the infamous Mr. Escobar was gunned down on a Medellín > rooftop in a manhunt, Colombia is still wrestling with the mess he made. > > Wildlife experts from Africa brought here to study Colombia's growing > numbers of hippos, a legacy of Mr. Escobar's excesses, have in recent days > bolstered the government's plan to prevent them - by force, if necessary - > from spreading into areas along the nation's principal river. But some > animal-rights activists are so opposed to the idea of killing them that they > have called for the firing of President Álvaro Uribe's environment minister. > > Peter Morkel, a consultant for the Frankfurt Zoological Society in > Tanzania, compared the potential for the hippos to disrupt Colombian > ecosystems to the agitation caused by alien species elsewhere, like goats on > the Galápagos Islands, cats on Marion Island between Antarctica and South > Africa, or pythons in Florida. > > "Colombia is absolute paradise for hippos, with its climate, vegetation and > no natural predators," Mr. Morkel said. > > "But as much as I love hippos, they are an alien species and extremely > dangerous to people who disrupt them," he continued. "Since castration of > the males is very difficult, the only realistic option is to shoot those > found off the hacienda." > > The uproar has its roots in 1981, when Mr. Escobar was busy assembling a > luxurious retreat here called Hacienda Nápoles that included a > Mediterranean-style mansion, swimming pools, a 1,000-seat bull ring and an > airstrip. > > "He needed a tranquil place to unwind with his family," said Fernando > Montoya, 57, a sculptor from Medellín who built giant statues here of > Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs for Mr. Escobar. > > Hired by private administrators of the seized estate, part of which is now > a theme park (imagine mixing "Jurassic Park" and "Scarface" into a theme), > Mr. Montoya rebuilt the same statues after looters tore them apart searching > for hidden booty. > > But Mr. Escobar was not content with just fake dinosaurs and bullfights. In > what ecologists describe as possibly the continent's most ambitious effort > to assemble a collection of species foreign to South America, he imported > animals like zebras, giraffes, kangaroos, rhinoceroses and, of course, > hippopotamuses. > > Some of the animals died or were transferred to zoos around the time Mr. > Escobar was killed. But the hippos largely stayed put, flourishing in the > artificial lakes dug at Mr. Escobar's behest. > > Carlos Palacio, 54, head of animal husbandry at Nápoles, said Mr. Escobar > started in 1981 with four hippos. Now, he said, at least 28 live on the > estate. "With our current level of six births a year set to climb, we could > easily have more than 100 hippos on this hacienda in a decade," Mr. Palacio > said. > > "Some experts see this herd as a treasure of the natural world in case > Africa's hippo population suffers a sharp decline," Mr. Palacio continued. > "Others view our growth as a kind of time bomb." > > The number of hippos on the hacienda could have reached 31 had Pepe, t
