8/22/2005: Dying hippos

Clodfobble finds this, the official cap: Hippopotami crowd into what is left of the Katuma River in Tanzania's Katavi National Park. The near-motionless hippos are fighting for life as they lie in just inches of water. Irrigation for agriculture near this river is the suspected cause of the hippos' plight.

Too many sad animal pics recently.

Def. not a Friday pic..
We humans are so "enlightened", yet we screw up everything we touch.. gah

I second that, Bullitt. Very sad.

And I thought whale-strandings were sad ...

I third that, truly sad...

just awful...

I hope the remaining hippos can muster up the energy to trample the fields and or farmers that stole their water. They were there first. Are there no alternate sources of water around for either party involved? Are they in a drought or is this the usual state of affairs in that area?

We all contribute in way or another to environmental destruction glatt..
The is pot calling the kettle black.

Thank you Noodle and Bullitt.
Yes Glatt, as a matter of fact I am very familiar with Los Angeles' destructive behavior; part of the reason I am getting the F out. In fact my vacation home has been turned into a complete desert in what used to be a somewhat flourishing agricultural valley, thanks to Mr. Mulholland and his greedy minions. I do plant only native plants that require very little water. I do reduce the amount of water my household consumes in many ways. I am not the one who chose to turn this desert into a green oasis - I was born here so I do the best with what I've got.
What are you doing to preserve the water table in your state?
And WTF does this have to do with killing hippos? I was just asking a question..... Geez...........

Can't a Cellarite be a smart ass anymore without getting sermonized/ I was just trying to bring a little levity to a grave situation by siding with the poor helpless hippos. Sorry if I touched a nerve Glatt. Here - have a nice cool glass of water.........

oooh!!! like that artist in New York! How insensitive and impractical ! I love it! I'm going home to plant a fern grotto, some orchids, and install a Koi pond! And misters! Wheee!!!!!!!!

All I can see when I look at this pic is hippo soup. Yeh, shame on me for not being sensitive to the hippos.

this came to mind from "the matrix"

(Office)
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.

This is indeed a very sad image to me.
I wish PETA and others would spend as much time, money and energy to do something about situations like this instead of wasting it on penny-ante peeves. If we could spend their budget we could most likely save the majority of these helpless critters.
Of course we all know that nature could induce some of these tragedies in order to control population, disease, etc..... but I don't think we can make that call on this one.
It really makes no difference whose fault it is....... it is still a grimacing reality.
Very sad to say the least.

If they give the water to the hippos we wouldn't have any IotD image.
I guess we'd have to substitute this one.

so true

so goes the food chain

This image is part of a series of Mike Fay's Africa Megaflyover sponsored by National Geographic. He flew over the areas of Africa that have the highest human impact and a digital camera mounted on the plan took a photo every 20 seconds. His purpose was to document the human impact on the land in Africa, and some photos were depressing, like this one, but many were uplifting.
Apparently Fay found out a few days after this photo was taken that the rainy season came (just in time) and these hippos survived.

That is so so sad, and so horrible. I hate seeing anything suffer. Hippo's skin is very sensitive, they must all be in terrible pain. Poor things.

I am utterly serious about this.

All those hippos will spread disease after their death, and taint the water for months. People are starving. Hippo burgers = less disease, tasty victuals.

Are people blind to the solutions staring them in the face?

I guess man has tinkered with the balance of nature so often that a re-adjustment must be on the cards. Certainly the card must be marked - to the point of being barely recognisable for what it was originally, I would think...

Such a sad picture.