Protecting the pygmy hippo | Tunde Folawiyo

April 8, 2014 Editor Tunde Folawiyo, tunde folawiyo africa, tunde folawiyo film festival, tunde folawiyo london

The pygmy hippo is the diminutive cousin of the hippopotamus; native to West Africa, it is 50% shorter, and 75% lighter than its relative. These animals reside mainly in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and tend to spend most of their time around swamplands and dense forests. They have now been classified by the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) as being endangered, due to the fact that their population numbers have dropped to about 2,000.

Anyone who is concerned with wildlife conservation in Africa, like Tunde Folawiyo, will probably be aware that there are three activities threaten the survival of this species. The first is hunting; whilst the pygmy hippo is not usually chosen as a direct target by bush-meat hunters, they often kill this animal when they come across it during their search for other creatures. The second is human development activities (i.e. the building of towns, villages and infrastructure), which has led to this species’ habitat becoming smaller and smaller, whilst the third is national and international conflict.

In Liberia, this species is legally protected under the 1988 Wildlife and National Park Act; however, this legislation is not heavily enforced outside of the country’s main sanctuary, Sapo National Park. The ZSL’s Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered team has become involved in the preservation of this species, and have been working with the staff at Sapo for some time now, carrying out bio-monitoring of pygmy hippos within the park. They have also been working in the Liberian city of Monrovia, assessing threats to this species, and compiling map data so that they could develop a comprehensive conservation strategy.

Additionally, conservation enthusiasts such as Tunde Folawiyo might know that there has been some success with captive breeding programmes for this species; in Switzerland, Zoo Basel owns a studbook, which allows it to manage the pygmy hippo population living in captivity around the world. Since it began to run this operation, the number of pygmy hippos born in zoos and sanctuaries has doubled; this, coupled with the fact that the lifespan of these captive animals is considerably longer than their wild counterparts, means that there is now a strong possibility that this species will survive, provided the ZSL and other groups continue to manage, and eliminate the other threats posed to it.

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