All articles tagged with #hippo
Eleven people, including children and a baby, went missing after a hippopotamus capsized their boat on the Sassandra River in Ivory Coast. The incident highlights the dangers of human-hippo interactions in the region, where around 500 hippos are estimated to live, and boat accidents are common. Search efforts are ongoing to find the missing victims.
Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo and internet sensation, celebrated her first birthday at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand with four days of festivities, drawing international fans and boosting awareness for her species, while remaining her unbothered, happy self.
This week's Saturday Citations cover a range of interesting topics. Physicists at Northwestern University used computer simulations to model galaxy formation after the Big Bang, revealing that stars formed in bursts, which has implications for our understanding of the early universe. Researchers at Singapore University of Technology and Design trained an AI system using reinforcement learning to play the arcade game Street Fighter, showcasing the potential of this approach in various fields. A study by New York University found that parents and coaches of youth chess players exhibit implicit biases, ranking the potential of girl players lower than boys. Lastly, researchers at the University of Zurich discovered that hippos' maxillofacial issues make them inefficient vegetarians due to their teeth structure, shedding light on their unique lifestyle.
Six more bodies have been recovered from the Shire River in Malawi, bringing the death toll to seven after a boat carrying about 37 people was capsized by a hippo on Monday. 17 people are still unaccounted for and the river is infested with crocodiles and hippos. The villagers were crossing the river to get to their farms at the Malawian border with Mozambique when the boat they were traveling in was struck by the hippo.
A 1-year-old child died and 23 people were missing and feared dead after a hippopotamus charged into and capsized a canoe on the Shire River in southern Malawi. The canoe was carrying 37 people on their way to neighboring Mozambique when it was hit by the hippo. Malawian police rescued 13 with the help of World Food Program personnel who were working in the area and provided boats for the rescue operation. Boat accidents are common in Malawi, where the lack of regular water transport forces many to cross lakes and rivers in sometimes rickety boats, in the absence of proper regulations.
A one-year-old boy has died and 23 people are missing after a hippo hit their boat, capsizing it in Malawi's biggest river, Shire. The boat was packed with villagers who were crossing the river to work in their fields. A total of 14 people managed to swim to safety or were rescued by other villagers who dived into the river to help. The accident occurred in the remote Nsanje district in southern Malawi, near the border with Mozambique. The Shire River is home to many hippos and crocodiles, and boats and canoes are often overcrowded or poorly maintained.
A hippo descended from Pablo Escobar's private menagerie died in Colombia after being hit by a car. The hippos were illegally brought into Colombia in the 1980s by Escobar as part of a collection of exotic animals he amassed at his ranch. After his death, authorities relocated most of the animals, but not the hippos because they were too difficult to transport. The hippos have reproduced rapidly and are now an invasive species in Colombia, posing a threat to agriculture and people's safety. Authorities have tried to control the population boom of the animals with sterilizations, contraceptive darts, and recently announced a $3.5 million plan to relocate 70 hippos to sanctuaries in Mexico and India.
Paul Templer, a safari guide in Zimbabwe, survived a hippo attack while leading a canoe expedition down the Zambezi River. He was up to his waist down the hippo's throat twice during the attack, which lasted about three and a half minutes. Despite the danger, hippos are important ecosystem engineers in sub-Saharan Africa. Human encroachment on their territory increases the chances of deadly interactions.