🤔 Fascinating! I have seen the odd news item about these particular Hippos & how they came to be roaming somewhere so far from "home" but their possible ecological impact is not usually the focus ... In general I think the people opposed to "culling" for good & obvious purposes (the culling I mean!) should be responsible for coming up with the solution 🤷 If they want the animals to be relocated instead, then they need to form an organisation to find homes & fundraise for the transport etc to uplift them & deliver them 🙄 It's a cop-out to tell the authorities they can't do something for the public good without coming up with a suitable alternative IMHO. Reminds me of people who don't want control of wee "cute" hedgehogs & feral cats decimating our indigenous species without addressing the fact of the harm they cause 🥹 Humans have a lot to answer for (in more ways than one!)
These kind of conservation issues can be very frustrating and the hippos really do bring the situation into sharp focus. I suspect that part of it may be that invasive species aren't a well-recognised issue in Colombia. I hope they manage to sort it out though.
Having spent time in the Okavango of Botswana I had the opportunity to observe (luckily not too closely) hippos and learn from locals how to avoid conflict (meaning they make the rules, we follow them). It was an unusually dry season so there were limited places the hippos could go so we had to adjust our time on the water to suit them.
I have no problem with culls of the drug lord hippos. I know it's not easy to do but the damage they are causing will only continue to ramp up if they're not removed. I only feel sorry for the people charged with doing it. Even when you know it's right it never gets easy.
🤔 Fascinating! I have seen the odd news item about these particular Hippos & how they came to be roaming somewhere so far from "home" but their possible ecological impact is not usually the focus ... In general I think the people opposed to "culling" for good & obvious purposes (the culling I mean!) should be responsible for coming up with the solution 🤷 If they want the animals to be relocated instead, then they need to form an organisation to find homes & fundraise for the transport etc to uplift them & deliver them 🙄 It's a cop-out to tell the authorities they can't do something for the public good without coming up with a suitable alternative IMHO. Reminds me of people who don't want control of wee "cute" hedgehogs & feral cats decimating our indigenous species without addressing the fact of the harm they cause 🥹 Humans have a lot to answer for (in more ways than one!)
These kind of conservation issues can be very frustrating and the hippos really do bring the situation into sharp focus. I suspect that part of it may be that invasive species aren't a well-recognised issue in Colombia. I hope they manage to sort it out though.
Having spent time in the Okavango of Botswana I had the opportunity to observe (luckily not too closely) hippos and learn from locals how to avoid conflict (meaning they make the rules, we follow them). It was an unusually dry season so there were limited places the hippos could go so we had to adjust our time on the water to suit them.
I have no problem with culls of the drug lord hippos. I know it's not easy to do but the damage they are causing will only continue to ramp up if they're not removed. I only feel sorry for the people charged with doing it. Even when you know it's right it never gets easy.
The Okavango sounds like a fascinating place, I'm not sure I'll ever see it but I love that it exists.
It is. And, like you, there are many places I'll never visit but find joy in their very existence.