Congo Rangers

Category: Hippos, Thoughts | Date: Feb 22 2007 | By: admin

Trish and Chris have asked an interesting question about the recovery of the hippos in and around Lake Edward. As I mentioned earlier, this used to be the most important hippo population in the world. In 1959 there were over 27 thousand hippos. When Emmanuel did the aerial survey of the hippos last December, there were only 315 left. This is a catastrophic decline, that led to hippos being listed on the IUCN redlist as an endangered species.

Hippos wallowing on the southern shores of Lake
Edward back in the 1980s (photo from Languy and de Merode 2006)

Hippos increase at 9% a year when they’re undisturbed. So, if we can stop the poaching, it would take them 53 years to build up to their earlier numbers. That’s assuming there’s no poaching or disease epidemic. That said, there’s a healthy population in the Ugandan part of the lake, many of which will probably migrate over to Congo with time, so it will certainly take less time. Whatever happens, there’s a lifetime’s work in store for us!