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Hippos: The Animal That Just Doesn't Make Sense | LivingZoo | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Hippos: The Animal That Just Doesn't Make Sense
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Hippos are surprisingly dangerous, complex, and ecologically vital animals, defying their gentle, herbivorous image with a combination of raw power, unique adaptations, and a surprisingly violent social structure, while also playing a critical role in their ecosystems.
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Here's a fun fact that'll probably ruin
your childhood. Hippopotamuses kill more
people each year than lions, leopards,
and hyenas combined. We're talking
somewhere around 500 human deaths
annually. And that could be on the lower
end. And yet somehow, we all grew up
thinking these barrel-shaped giants were
the gentle vegetarians of the African
Rivers, right up there with the manatees
on the big but harmless scale. When in
reality, they're one of the freakiest
and most dangerous mammals in the entire
animal kingdom. You see, the real non-d
Disney version of the hippopotamus can
snap someone in half with a single bite,
having a bite for stronger than 99% of
all predators, will spray feces like a
poop propeller, seemingly sweats blood,
has one of the most violent societies
out there, oh, and uh can't swim. And
this is barely scratching the surface of
the absurdity that is the hippo. Now,
obviously, hippos are pretty big with
adult male hippos averaging around 3,300
lb or 1,500 kg, while some Absolute
units push more than 5,800 lb or 2,650
kg. That's roughly the weight of two
Honda Civics, all supported on four
stubby legs that look comically
undersized for the job. But despite what
appears to be a design flaw, hippos have
been reported to be able to sprint at
about 30 km/h or 19 mph if you piss one
off. And also do so with so much force
that they even reach a full airborne
stage with all limbs securely off the
ground mid-stride, which kind of seems
like it would be hilarious if you
weren't on the uh receiving end. Now,
Usain Bolt's top speed is about 44 km/h
or 27 mph, which is a decent bit faster,
but let me remind you, he is literally
the fastest human who has ever lived.
And that's his top speed. The average
person, you're lucky if you hit 24 km/h
or 14 mph in a dead sprint. So, if a
hippo decides you're a problem, you're
basically done for. And the reason those
stubby legs look so well stubby is
because they're basically columns of
bone designed to both support their
massive weight on land, fit their watery
lifestyle, and then of course be able to
withstand and generate explosive forces.
And so unsurprisingly, the skeleton of
the hippo, i.e. the bones themselves,
are unusually dense. So much so that
unlike almost every other aquatic or
semi-aquatic animal you can think of,
hippos cannot swim. In fact, if you put
them in deep water, they'll sink like
the fleshcovered boulders that they are.
in other words, drown. And so with that
said, you're probably thinking, "Well,
that's obviously false. I've seen them
swim in literal documentaries." And yes,
they can move in the water, but their
moving is rather literal, as instead of
swimming, they walk along the bottom of
rivers and lakes, sort of like
disgruntled underwater trolls, pushing
off the substrate and bouncing forward
in somewhat of a slow motion movement.
And researchers studying hippo
locomotion discover that their
underwater gate resembles a sort of
galloping with the dense bones providing
the necessary negative buoyancy to
maintain intermittent contact with the
riverbed. But funnily enough, they do
this with surprise and grace, moving in
sort of slow motion bounce, kind of like
watching someone in a moonwalk across
the moon, except this astronaut weighs
two tons and can and will absolutely
kill you if it gets the chance. And this
odd quote unquote swimming method is
partly why hippos have evolved to be
able to stay submerged for minutes at a
time. They're just chilling at the
bottom, likely just strolling around.
And then when they do need air, a reflex
will kick in and they push up towards
the surface. And that might sound
similar to what would happen if we were
chilling underwater, too. But this
reflex is likely at the very least
partially subconscious as hippos can in
fact sleep entirely underwater as their
bodies will automatically surface every
few minutes for a quick breath before
sinking back down all the while without
waking up which I can guarantee would
not work the same for you. Meanwhile,
their eyes, ears, and nostrils all sit
high in their skulls like biological
periscopes, letting them lurk with just
the top of their heads poking above the
waterline with everything else staying
hidden below. which is terrifying when
you realize that what looks like a
couple of bumps in the water might
actually be a two-tonon murder machine
just watching you. But this does beg the
question of why is it a murder machine
in the first place? I mean, hippos are
herbivores, right? And yes, they eat
grass, spend their nights grazing like
oversized lawnmowers, cropping about 40
kg or 88 lb of vegetation per session.
And yet, evolution gave them a mouth
that looks like it was designed for a
completely different job description.
With hippos, in fact, having the largest
teeth of any known terrestrial animal
ever when not including tusks, which are
not designed for in-mouth usage. And by
the way, even when considering the T-Rex
and to add on to that, the hippo can
open its mouth up to 110°, wide enough
to swallow well, a lot of things whole.
Then inside that gaping cavern, you'll
find the massive lower canines, which
can reach up to 50 cm or 20 in long, so
about the length of your forearm and
about twice the size of a T-Rex's tooth.
And these behemoths are curved like
sabers and grow continuously throughout
the hippo's life. All the while equipped
with a self-sharpening mechanism, which
works the other teeth grind against each
other. And speaking of those other
teeth, the upper insizers aren't much
better, reaching 40 cm or 1.2 ft in
length. And if having some 1T plus
sabers wasn't bad enough, these quote
unquote teeth sit in a jaw powered by
muscles capable of generating around
1,800 lb per square in of pressure,
which makes this one of, if not the
strongest bite force amongst all mammals
who walk on land and is absolutely
enough to crush many a poor fool. And
yet, even one of the strongest bites in
the planet is nothing compared to the
power of a F-111 Arvar. nor would a
clash between this amphibious giant and
the amphibious PT76 go well for it. So,
let's just say hippos should mess with
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now back to the video. And again, all of
this hardware, in other words, this
biological hydraulic press with sword
attachments, is installed in the face of
an animal whose primary diet is grass.
And it gets weirder. The jaw is so rigid
that hippos can't move them in a side to
side motion, making it hard to chew. So
instead, they rely on their flattened,
horny lips, not that type of horny, to
pick up the grasses, which are then
moved to the mers. It's quite
inefficient for processing plant matter.
And yet, here we are. And fun fact, it
is kind of similar to the extinct
desmosalia, which I just made a video on
on extinct zoo. So, go check that out if
you haven't seen it. And you know that
classic hippo yawning pose? Yeah, they
don't do that because they're tired.
That massive gape, the one that exposes
those massive teeth in that pink cavern
of a mouth is a threat display. The
hippo is basically showing you the goods
and letting you do the math. And
speaking of displays, despite the hippo
presumably looking like someone
crossbred a pig with a rhino with a
boulder, hippos are not related to pigs,
rhinos, or boulders. Not even close,
actually. In fact, the hippo's closest
living relatives are whales and
dolphins. Yeah, you heard that right.
Hippos and cotations, the group that
includes orcas, blue whales, and
skipper, all descend from a common
ancestor that lived around 60 million
years ago. Now the exact relationship is
debated as despite the first citations
appearing 50 million plus years ago, the
hippopotam day first appeared only about
15 million years ago. However, it turns
out while the citations went full marine
mode early on evolving into the sleek
intelligent creatures we know today, the
other group wasn't exactly a pure land
lover either with the ancestors of the
hippos believed to be the now extinct
group known as the enthrakers with some
members being at least partially
amphibious. And this shared origin
appears to explain much of the hippo's
weirdness. The dense bones that allowed
them to walk underwater. Well, early
sitations like Pacicetus had similar
adaptations. Pairlessness. Both groups
got it. Hippos even nurse underwater
like sitations do with calves sealing
their ears and nostrils of a special
reflex. It's kind of like hippos or
whales in progress with them just having
stopped halfway through the transition
and decided that they didn't really want
to deal with sharks. But what's
interesting is that despite these two
groups being again their own closest
relatives, it is thought that the vast
majority of hippos aquatic adaptations
do not come from their shared ancestry
or from the shared ancestor. So again,
while both groups developed similar
aquatic traits, skeletal adaptations,
hairlessness, certain underwater
communication abilities, which we'll get
to later, it is thought that these
features evolved independently through
convergent evolution. For example, one
study which looked at the pygmy hippo
genome revealed that gene loss related
to skin function to adapt for an aquatic
lifestyle occurred much later in hippos
than in whales. So the answer to their
seemingly shared features is more the
fact that their last common ancestor had
adaptations that created easier pathways
to the development of these aquatic
adaptations and thus the similarity. The
dwalitations have mainly left the
freshwater world behind. Hippos were
content to take their place with them
once spanning Europe, Africa, and Asia,
but are now just constrained, of course,
to Africa, which is quite ironic when
you realize that fossil evidence
suggests that the hippo lineage actually
evolved in Africa as well. Though, like
I alluded to, their interthier ancestors
have been around for considerably
longer. And the fossil record reveals
quite a few unusual things about this
group's evolutionary path. For example,
hippopotamus gorgops had eyes positioned
even higher on its skull than modern
species, a feature that suggests that it
might have spent even more time
submerged than modern ones. And fun
fact, this species actually coexisted
with early humans. And it was their
bones in particular that were actually
turned into the earliest bone tools
ever, being about 1.5 million years old.
Oh, and uh it was also bigger. But on
the flip side, other extinct hippo
species colonized islands in the
Mediterranean during periods when sea
levels were lower, including Cyprus, cit
on these islands, they underwent insular
dwarfism, evolving into species the
height of large dogs. So rather stark
contrast, their massive mainland
relatives. But here's an important part
to keep in mind. While their closest
relatives, or should I say whale of
their closest relatives, the citations
are all carnivorous, hippos have been
primarily herbivorous for a very, very
long time. And so all of these teeth,
jaw strength, and aggression that
evolved not for hunting prey, but rather
for fighting other hippos. Because in
hippo society, violence is the primary
language. And if you want to pass on
your genes, you'd better be ready to
throw down. A typical hippopod consists
of a dominant bull controlling a stretch
of river, a herm of females with their
calves, and then a few younger bachelor
males who are allowed to stick around as
long as they don't get any ideas. And
during the day, it seems like they all
lounge together in the water. But in
reality, these groups are highly
stratified by gender and rank. With the
females hanging with the females, the
bachelors with the other bachelors, and
the bull all by himself. But remember,
hippo society is not built on peace,
affection, or cooperation. It's built on
territorial enforcement, and the
constant threat of violence. And so, a
dominant male keeps a tight terrain on
his territory, and any rival who wanders
into a stretch of river gets a face full
of teeth. And when a spat does happen,
hippos will generally first challenge
each other through opening their mouths
as wide as possible and sizing each
other up. This then usually proceeds and
escalates to actual combat whereby the
males will affectionately tusk each
other in the face as well as swing their
heads like maces, biting and generally
trying to inflict destruction upon their
rival with the end result being the
loser retreating and the winner getting
the territory into all the girls. And
the result of said fight can be so
severe that the losing bulls have been
observed being killed by groups of
crocodiles due to its injuries,
apparently being weakened to such a
degree. So with all this said, you'd
probably think this violence and
hierarchy extends to every aspect of
their life. But oddly on land, all of
this aggression just seems to evaporate,
at least to each other. You see, when
hippos leave the water to graze at
night, they generally do so
independently, and males do not
establish or extend territory onto land.
So theoretically, the same two males who
were trying to murder each other just
hours before might walk past each other
on land without so much as a sideways
glance. But then when the dawn comes and
they head back to the water, boom, game
of river continues. Now, unlike the
males, female hippos will actually
sometimes work together, forming loose
nurseries and cooperating to protect
calves from threats. You see, they'll
position themselves collectively between
potential danger and the young, and
they've even been observed helping with
raising the young that is not theirs.
Males on the other hand offer exactly
zero parental care. In fact, not only do
they give zero, they sometimes give
negative with infanticide having been
observed in areas where hippos become
overpop populated or after a habitat
shrinks where then I guess the male kind
of goes this town ain't big enough for
the two of us. So yeah, it was basically
a floating dictatorship punctuated by
grazing breaks. But if you thought the
social violence was strange, wait until
you hear about how these guys actually
communicate and mark their territory.
Because they have taken the concept of
leaving your mark to a whole new level,
turning it into something which I can
only refer to as a modern performance
art piece, which is called muck
spreading and involves a tailor
propeller and uh lots of feces. Now,
it's not exactly known why hippos do
this, but there is the idea that it's
potentially a way for a hippo to find
his way back to the water. I guess they
never heard of breadcrumbs. And so when
a hippo wants to leave a trail or maybe
just announce his presence on land, he
doesn't just leave a quote unquote
deposit and walk away like a civilized
creature. Oh no. Instead, he flicks his
tail rapidly like a helicopter rotor and
sprays a slurry of feces in a wide arc
around the landscape. And when I say in
a wide arc, I mean a wide ark. We're
talking about a literal poop tornado
here. A fecal cyclone, if you will, that
paints the land with a lovely array of
scent molecules and partially digested
plant matter. And the tail can move at
such remarkable speeds during this
display that in some ways it almost
looks like an anime fight sequence. Just
the more poop and a little bit less
yelling. But funny enough, talking about
yelling, hippos are surprisingly loud.
Their signature call is the weeze honk,
which is the kind of noise you'd expect
from a broken accordion being attacked
by a tuba. And it can reach a whopping
115 dB, which is loud enough to cause
hearing damage at close range. And
hippos use this call for possibly a
number of reasons. and they're able to
identify those they are familiar with
and strangers with them reacting more
visibly to calls they never heard
before. But here's the really odd part.
Hippos can vocalize both above and below
water at the same time with individuals
then also responding both above and
below the water. And this poses a
interesting question which is how can
they hear this or at least in a
distinguishable way as water usually
messes with auditory perception at least
with how most mammal ears are designed.
And it turns out there might be two
different solutions at play here. One is
that hippos can fold their ears back to
seal off the internal canals,
potentially reducing the distortion in
the water. But this then poses the
additional challenge of making the ears
less sensitive to the sound overall. And
so at least one scientist, William
Barlo, believes that hippos might be
hearing effectively underwater, not
through their ears, but rather their
jaw. Sounds weird, I know, but there's
actually precedent for this. And can you
guess in who? Their closest cousins, the
citations. The idea is that they might
be receiving input to their inner ear
through both their actual ears and then
also through resonance in the jaw. And
researchers have documented multiple
different types of underwater
vocalizations which seem to support the
complexity of the system. There is even
the idea that hippos might use
rudimentary echolocation underwater,
essentially clicking to help maintain
awareness in their murky environments.
Though I will say this idea is still
being tested. But regardless, there is
one thing that's clear. Hippos spend a
lot of time in the water with research
showing they spend approximately 77% of
their social time underwater. And one
thing that certainly reflects that is
their skin being adapted for constant
submersion. And given that they spend
considerably time partially submerged or
lounging in the shallows as well, you'd
think that when they did surface, they'd
be prone to sunburns and skin damage due
to the intense African sun. And you'd be
right thinking this, except evolution
gave hippos their own built-in solution.
one that almost mirrors something we do
one for one kind of. You see, hippos
secrete a reddish orange fluid from
specialized subdermal glands distributed
across their bodies. And early humans
saw the secretion and genuinely thought
that hippos are bleeding leading to all
kinds of explanations and strangely
medical practices with bloodletting in
Egypt thought to have come from this
observation. However, in reality, they
were witnessing secretion of a mixture
of two acids, hipposidoric acid and
norhippedic acid. And together they beat
up on the hippo's skin like oil,
creating a glossy sheen that looks
somewhat unsettling if you don't know
what you're looking at. And despite this
seemingly being a weapon of terror,
because I mean, who wants to mess with
someone sweating blood? There's actually
a more intuitive reason for it. This
quote unquote blood sweat is actually a
multi-purpose biochemical cocktail.
First, it absorbs ultraviolet light
across a broad spectrum, essentially
functioning as a natural sunscreen,
absorbing UV radiation effectively and
preventing cellular damage from the sun.
Second, both pigments have powerful
antibiotic properties that inhibit
bacterial growth with it being
particularly effective against certain
strains of bacteria. So even when hippos
sustain injuries and fights, their
wounds more seldomly develop infections.
Their red body lotion just coats
everything and kills the wouldbe
pathogens. So essentially, hippos
produce their own sunscreen and
antiseptic, all in one convenient
solution. And if you thought hippos are
weird on the outside, they're just as
bizarre on the inside with their
reproductive anatomy being um
questionable. You see, male hippos have
testicles that never descend and have no
scrotum, meaning they sit internally or
partially internally. And even the penis
retracts entirely into the body when not
um in use. Interestingly though, this
internal male genitalia is actually a
trait shared by almost all truly aquatic
mammals thought to have evolved to
reduce drag among other things.
Meanwhile, female hippos have the oddity
of two large sacks inside the vaginal
tract. And while the exact function is
still being studied, unlike the male
adaptations, this trait seems to be
unique and not share to mock their
marine cousins. But despite all this
anatomical weirdness, they manage to do
the dirty just fine. A female gestates
for about 8 months, which is roughly
similar to humans, and then typically
gives birth in shallow water or
occasionally on land. And the calfs
themselves come out already quite hefty,
weighing about 50 kg on average, and
measuring over a meter or 3 ft long. So,
think roughly the size of a big dog, but
considerably heavier. And like I
mentioned before, the mothers are
insanely protective. In deep water,
they'll carry the babies on their backs,
and they also leave the pod for about 2
weeks until the calf is strong enough to
keep up. And then once they do rejoin,
calves often huddle together in
nurseries where they can play together,
while the adult females act as guards.
And let's just say, may the heavens show
mercy on you if you try to threaten set
group as multiple oneplus ton mothers
will rush to defend the young, forming
protective wall of flesh, tusks, and
likely murder. And if somehow a calf
dies, mothers have been observed
guarding the body of their dead young
for quite some time, defending the
corpse from scavengers and likely the
grip of the grim reaper if she could.
But with all these adaptations, the
bulk, the violence, the defensiveness,
you might be wondering what actually
eats a hippo. And the answer is
basically nothing. Well, at least not
regularly. Adult hippos rarely fall prey
to predation. Lions will occasionally be
reported killing them out of the water,
but it's rare. and crocodiles will
generally go out of their way to avoid
them in the water. But that being said,
large males have been documented preying
on subad adults and perhaps even adult
females along with the very rare case of
an injured male being taken after a
fight by a group of crocs. But when I
say rare, I mean rare. And really, the
hippo is the one who truly sits at the
top of the freshwater food chain. And
pretty much nothing can or does
challenge that position. But forget
worrying about hippos. It's us who
should really be worried because hippos
kill upwards of 500 people every year,
which is more than lions, by the way.
Now, obviously, hippos don't hunt
humans, per se. They're not really
interested in eating us, but they're
incredibly territorial and easily
startled, which is a dangerous
combination when you're a two-tonon
flesh boulder with a temper to make a
Chihuahua look docile. What usually
happens is one of two things. Like I
mentioned before, hippos graze at night,
walking several kilometers from water to
find food. And so this will sometimes
put them in proximity with people. And
if a hippo sees said people, panics, and
perceives them as a threat, bad things
are in high probability of occurring.
Remember that 30 km sprint? Yeah, you're
screwed. And so if the hippo charges and
bowls you over, the impact alone has the
potential for being fatal. I mean, it's
like being hit by a small car. But um
those tus then turn a dicey situation
into an absolutely doomed one. And
remember, my friends, this is just the
land portion. The thing is, hippos are
even more aggressive in the water. So,
you could just be paddling along in a
canoe, minding your own business, and a
hippo could decide it particularly had a
bone to pick with you. And by the time
you realize what's happening, it's
likely too late. Even experienced guides
in Africa treat hippos with tremendous
caution because if you don't, these
moody blubber boulders can spell your
doom. In fact, in 2014 in Niger, a boat
was capsized by a hippo and 13 people
were killed outright. And at this point,
I do have to admit one thing, which is
that I haven't been totally upfront with
you. And what I mean is that while we
call hippos herbivores, which they are,
they do occasionally like a good umami
snack. In other words, meat. Let me be
clear, though. This isn't exactly
common. In the vast majority of a
hippo's diet, over 99% is plant matter,
and they're not anatomically adapted for
eating meat in any meaningful way. But
there are enough documented cases to
prove that when push comes to shove,
hippos are not morally opposed to a good
steak. with researchers having filmed
hippos Nong and Kerrion. And in one
particularly interesting case from the
'90s, a hippo had been observed killing
an impala and then freaking eating it.
And then just as the cherry on top,
there's also documented evidence of
cannibalism. But all these behaviors is
likely due to a lack of nutrients,
potentially phosphorus, which thus makes
them hungry for meat and bones. And
this, by the way, is also the cause
behind osteopagy or bone eating, which
is sometimes observed among deer, cows,
and other herbivorous animals. Or
perhaps again, they just don't have
strong feelings about dietary categories
and will eat whatever is available when
they're hungry. Either way though, it's
a stark reminder that those jaws and
tusks, which evolved for fighting other
hippos, are absolutely more than capable
of tearing through flesh. And I
personally would not want to test the
theory that they're purely herbivorous
on a hungry hippo. But you do you. But
with all of this said, these guys aren't
just big, scary, sometimes eating
monsters. And despite being
understandably terrifying, hippos are
actually critical to the ecosystems they
inhabit. They're what ecologists call
ecosystem engineers, meaning their
presence fundamentally shapes the
environment around them in ways that
benefit and affect countless other
species. Every night as the hippos leave
the water and walk km inland to graze,
they consume about 3% of their body
weight and vegetation. And then they
return to the waters before dawn, often
using the same trails night after night.
And then once back in the water, they
spend their day doing what hippos do,
lounging, biting, and defecating. And
here's the key part. All that dung and
urine, which contains nutrients from the
terrestrial plants they ate, gets
deposited directly into the river,
serving as tasty food for all the plants
and smaller organisms. And let me tell
you, this is not a small amount of
fertilizer. As one study revealed that
hippos deposited an estimated 8,500 kg
of organic matter into the Mar River
system daily. To put that into
perspective, that's roughly the weight
of two adult elephants worth of organic
material being transported from
terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems every
single day. And this massive input helps
directly or indirectly feed insects and
small fish, which in turn feed larger
fish. And those fish support everything
from crocodiles to king fishers to human
fishers. But it's not just about the
poop. Hippot trails worn into the
landscape over their daily feeding can
divert the path of swamps and even
channels. And so unsurprisingly, a
review in 2023 suggested that the hippo
is potentially Africa's most influential
mega herbivore in terms of ecosystem
impact with the takeaway being that
hippos, despite all their violence and
weirdness, are actually crucial
enriching both terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems. So yes, they're dangerous,
but they're also irreplaceable. But
there is some complications to this,
which is that research has also revealed
how changing water patterns can
fundamentally alter hippo's ecological
role. In most untouched quote unquote
natural conditions, hippodung provides
beneficial nutrients to rivers. But as
humans alter the natural flow of rivers
or droughts occur, these same nutrients
can cause utrification, meaning
excessive nutrient richness, which then
causes dense algae growth, which in turn
causes the lovely phenomena known as
anoxia. In other words, oxygen
depletion. And this obviously isn't
great for the creatures that rely on set
oxygen, such as those fish I mentioned
earlier. And this doesn't just affect
fish, but also people directly, as
studies estimate that hippoinduced toxic
events could reduce fish populations by
up to 41%. But overall, they are
certainly an important positive driver
of ecosystem enrichment. But
unfortunately, despite their clear
importance to keeping the ecosystems
healthy, they are listed as vulnerable
by the IUCN with habitat loss, poaching
for meat and ivory, and other conflict
with humans having all taken their toll.
And in some areas, they are less than 5%
of what they used to be in the 70s.
However, in perhaps the oddest of
twists, we have the opposite problem on
a completely different continent. You
see, in Colombia, hippos are thriving.
So much so, in fact, that they're now
considered an invasive species. And the
government is desperately trying to
figure out what to do about them. And
that in itself is crazy enough. But the
how they got there part is even crazier.
And it all starts with Pablo Escobar.
You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. The
Kingpin imported four hippos to his
private estate, Hassienda Napouolis.
Why? Because why not? Apparently, he
thought a private zoo featuring African
megapana would be a fun addition to his
cocaine empire. And the hippos lived on
the property were largely left to their
own devices. Then in 1993, Escobar was
killed and his estate was abandoned,
leading to Colombian authorities
relocating most of his exotic animals.
But moving the hippos, that seemed
unnecessary and perhaps dangerous. But
regardless, famous last words if I've
ever seen some. And so they left the
four to do their own thing, likely
assuming they wouldn't cause much
trouble. But boy oh boy, were they in
for a treat. Now, obviously, hippos, who
have no real natural predators in their
native ranges, would obviously have less
reason to fear predators in Colombia.
having exactly zero of them. And so
finding the climate perfectly to their
liking, they did what hippos do best,
pooped and reproduced a lot. And by the
2000s, the original four had become over
a dozen. And by 2019, estimates put the
population at around 100 individuals.
And by 2023, those four hippos had
reached a population of 215. And current
models suggest that without
intervention, Colombia could have over a
thousand hippos by 2050. Let that sink
in for a second. No pun intended. A
continent that has never had hippos has
no animals who evolved alongside hippos
now has a rapidly growing population of
one of Africa's most dangerous animals.
And it seems like no one knows what to
do about it. The hippos have dispersed
across the Magdalena River area, moving
into lakes and rivers throughout the
region. They're also displaying the same
behaviors they do in their native range,
grazing at night, marking the territory
with dung, and attacking literally
anything they perceive as a threat. with
at least multiple attacks on humans
having been reported. And this might not
just be a disaster for humans, but also
for the ecosystem as a whole. As like
we've established, hippos produce
predigious amounts of dung. And while
that's generally beneficial for African
rivers, the animals there evolved with
hippos. And as such, Colombian waterways
might not be equipped to handle it with
a 2020 study reporting increased levels
of cyanobacteria, which can cause
algolooms and thus enoxia. On the flip
side though, some conservationists have
suggested there might actually be a
positive effect with the hippos
essentially serving the same ecological
role that the now extinct toxons used to
play in the region who went extinct due
to humans around 12,000 years ago. But
regardless of good or bad, the Colombian
government is aware of the potential
threat and have tried various approaches
to control them. Sterilization programs
have castrated males, but the procedure
costs nearly $50,000 per animal and is
dangerous, logistically challenging to
say the least. And so at this point you
might be thinking why not just call
them. Well some officials had the exact
same idea but to put it lightly this
proved particularly toxic politically so
that is. In 2009 authorities shot a
hippo named Pepe. And let's just say
public outcry was so intense that coing
was taken off the table indefinitely.
And so as of 2023 Colombia has committed
to sterilizing 40 hippos annually as
well as investigating deportation to
countries like India and Mexico. But
even if that is successful, hippos will
remain on the Colombian landscape for
many years to come. So overall, you've
got this surreal situation where a
species that's vulnerable and declining
in its native range is thriving and is
somewhat of an invasive pest in South
America. And neither problem has a good
solution. In Africa, conservationists
are fighting to save hippos, while in
Colombia, they're fighting to contain
them, which I don't know about you, but
in my opinion fits the contradiction
that are hippos perfectly. Thanks for
watching and again thank you to War
Thunder for sponsoring this video. Make
sure to check it out now for free on PC,
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