African countries want hippos listed as endangered species
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Loading... - Caleb Jematai
- 04 Aug 2022
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Ten African countries have proposed that hippopotamus be given the highest protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’s (CITES) official list of endangered animals.
Hippos are already listed as an appendix II species, which means they are not necessarily threatened with extinction but could become so if their trade is not regulated.
Activists from the 10 countries want hippos to be reclassified as ‘appendix I’, the highest level, which would make it completely illegal to trade in hippo body parts and ivory.
A species only becomes officially ‘endangered’ when the CITES says so. It will be known whether hippos will be classified as endangered or not until the next CITES meeting in Panama in November.
Native to Africa, hippopotamuses are huge, water-loving animals. They are also among the largest and dangerous land mammals on the planet.
The current status of the global hippo population is so precarious. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that between 115,000 and 130,000 common hippos remain in the wild thus have become 20 percent fewer than there were in 1990.
Hippos are especially vulnerable to overexploitation due to their long gestation periods of eight months, and females not reaching sexual maturity until nine or 10 years.
The ivory trade also encourages killing hippos because ivory can be found in their teeth, while other hippo body parts are also traded for high prices.
77,579 hippo parts and products were legally traded from 2009 to 2018, according to The Guardian.
On top of all that, climate change is reducing hippos’ access to fresh water and destroying their habitats.
In 2016, IUCN classified hippos as vulnerable to extinction on its red list with local declines, particularly in west Africa, raising fears about the survival of the species in some of the 38 African countries where it is found. Read More...
