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?

Queen of the Ryche wrote:

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.

I find it somewhat amusing for someone from Los Angeles to have this opinion. Do you know that your city and others in the desert southwest take so much water from the Colorado River that it doesn't reach the ocean any longer? There were no hippos in the Colorado River, but the animals that used to live in it are just as dead as these hippos will be.

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

Bullitt wrote:

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

Yes. That's my point.

glatt wrote:

Yes. That's my point.

Then don't act all high and mighty treating Queen like she doesn't know anything.

Queen of the Ryche wrote:

I hope the remaining hippos can muster up the energy to trample the fields and or farmers that stole their water.

They'll have to hurry if they want to get them before famine and malaria do. The life expectancy for a Tanzanian male is 42.5 years. But there is hope. Hippos kill more people than any other animal, so they're doing their best.

I'd take a mulligan on that shot, if it were me.

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...........

Bullitt wrote:

Then don't act all high and mighty treating Queen like she doesn't know anything.

Perhaps I could have worded it better, but my point was that it was a little silly for Queen to call for the death of farmers who are doing the exact same thing she (and the rest of us) are doing. I zeroed in on Los Angeles, because it would be difficult to find a more perfect example of stealing water. I'm sure Queen has heard of the water problems of the desert southwest, but her comment made me think a little reminder was in order.

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.........

I was just trying to bring a little levity to a grave situation

oooh. poor choice of words. or clever. whichever you intended. relax Queen i live in phoenix so i know a little something about water consumption. hell, i leave my faucets running all day when i leave for work just to make sure i get my fair share 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!!!!!!!!

Queen of the Ryche wrote:

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.........

Sorry if I over-reacted. I wasn't blaming you personally. Everyone is just talking about how SAD it is that these poor rhinos are dying, and then you blamed the farmers in the area (based on what the article said). I get tired of people pointing their fingers at others as the problem, when they are just as guilty themselves. I am just as guilty as these farmers for the death of the rhinos. We all are. I was trying to point that fact out in a very specific way, using the desert southwest, and more specifically, L.A., as an example. We do the exact same shit here in the US every day, but with different wildlife. Nobody seems to care until there is a powerful image of a place far away where we can blame other people.

I'll take that glass of water. Thanks.

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. :eyebrow:

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.

glatt wrote:

Sorry if I over-reacted. I wasn't blaming you personally. Everyone is just talking about how SAD it is that these poor rhinos are dying, ...snip

Yeah, not to mention the hippos...

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. :cry:

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. :(