henrietta hippo in danger

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Rebel Poachers Could Wipe Out Hippos in Congo Park

 

October 20, 2006 — By Reuters

NAIROBI -- Hippos at a national park in Congo's war-torn east could be wiped out

by the end of the year unless action is taken to stop rebel militia slaughtering

them for their meat and ivory, conservationists said.

 

Experts say more than 400 hippos have been killed by Mai Mai fighters in the

last two weeks in Virunga National Park, which once boasted Africa's greatest

concentration of the beasts.

 

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said a recent survey found less than 900

hippos remaining in the remote jungle park, compared with 22,000 recorded there

in 1988.

 

" If the killing continues at its current rate, ZSL field workers fear there will

be no hippos left in many parts of the national park by Christmas, " ZSL said in

a report seen by Reuters on Friday.

 

So many had been killed, it said, that hippo meat was now sold illegally in

local markets for as little as $0.20 per kilo.

 

ZSL, which has worked in the park for five years, said the rebels were also

killing buffalo and elephants -- and had attacked game rangers and their

families.

 

" This is one of the biggest challenges the park rangers have had to face since

the war, " said Lyndsay Gale, the charity's Bushmeat and Forests Conservation

Programme Coordinator.

 

" It comes as a devastating blow after recent surveys indicated wildlife

populations were beginning to recover from over a decade of civil war, due to

the commitment and dedication of the rangers. They need our support. "

 

ZSL appealed for funds to boost ranger salaries -- which it already contributes

to -- and for extra anti-poaching training.

 

Virunga, on Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda, is Africa's

oldest national park and once boasted the highest density of large mammals in

the world.

 

But in the last 10 years it has also been at the heart of two wars, during which

poaching spiralled out of control and a plethora of national armies and rebel

groups fought over territory and natural resources.

 

Rwanda's 1994 genocide led to an influx of refugees and militia fighters in the

area, followed by DRC's 1998-2003 war, which sucked in foreign forces and

resulted in a humanitarian catastrophe that killed some 4 million people.

 

Source: Reuters

 

 

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances,

there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in

such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest

we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

William O. Douglas