“In my view, US trade [in hippo parts] said Crawford Allan, a wildlife trade expert at the World Wildlife Fund. In Africa, “no one wastes anything. That is, if you kill an animal because it is a danger to your community, eat its meat, sell its skin, sell its teeth, sell its skull to a taxidermist.” Hippopotamus parts such as teeth and skin are not valuable enough for local hunters to be a significant reason to kill them, he said.
Other experts echo this opinion. Luison cites the example of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the hippopotamus population fell from around 30,000 in the mid-1970s to less than 1,000 by 2005. Animals were “killed when everyone was starving” in civil wars and wars. and they ate it. ”
Luison acknowledges that hippopotamus parts can be found in trafficked wildlife confiscations, but they make up a small portion of the illegal wildlife trade, including ivory and rhino horn. and other far more valuable commodities, she says.
An analysis of official trade numbers by HSI and its collaborators found that 2,074 of the hippopotamus products imported into the United States between 2008 and 2019 were hunting trophies. (Other countries legally imported about 2,000 more hippopotamus trophies during the same period). However, according to the trade database compiled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, virtually all of the trophies and other hippopotamus parts compiled by HSI show that the hippopotamus has a large population. , apparently coming from a well-controlled country. Neither HSI nor the Center for Biodiversity provided data linking hippopotamus declines to hunting trophies and other legally traded parts.
Regulated trophy hunting could have conservation benefits, says Paul Scholte, a member of the Ethiopia-based hippo expert group. Together with local colleagues, he conducted and published a survey of hippopotamus populations in northern Cameroon, which showed declines in government-run reserves and population growth in areas rented to private trophy-hunting operators. shown to be stable or increasing.
“A factor that explains whether the hippopotamus population remains stable is the presence of year-round protection by rangers and scouts,” Scholte said, adding that government rangers are highly mobile during most of the rainy season. explained that they would not patrol to difficult. However, trophy hunting companies have the funds and motivation to continue to protect their concessions from poachers and illegal gold diggers who kill hippos in the area.
Hippo experts say the focus on the parts trade distracts from more important issues and increases friction between African countries. They found that southern and eastern African countries with large, well-managed reserves generally have safer hippopotamus populations than central and western African countries, where many populations are endangered. He points out that he accepts
These various circumstances lead to differing views on protection policy. Authorities in West and Central Africa generally support wild animal trade bans, which they believe will deter poaching of extremely vulnerable populations, but most countries in Southern Africa and the East Some African countries claim their populations are being poached. It is large enough to sustain the hunting and commercial trade that funds wildlife conservation.
