Pygmy hippopotami wading in the water in their habitat in the Singapore Zoo. - MANDAI WILDLIFE GROUP
SINGAPORE: Moo Deng the pygmy hippopotamus has rocketed to internet stardom in the past few months. The four-month-old hippo, whose name translates to “bouncy pork” in Thai, has drawn thousands of visitors to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province.
She even has a 24/7 livestream so people the world over can catch her antics.
But in the wild, it is much harder to observe the likes of her species, as population numbers of the lustrous semi-aquatic mammal are declining.
With fewer than 2,500 individuals left worldwide, the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. This means that it faces a high risk of going extinct in the wild.
The pygmy hippo lives near the rivers and streams of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. Though it once also roamed the forests of Nigeria, there have been no sightings reported in the past few decades.
The biggest threat to these rotund mammals is deforestation, said the IUCN website. Forests they inhabit have been logged, farmed and converted to various types of plantations – rubber, coffee and palm oil. Increased mining activity and infrastructure development further threaten their survival.
This habitat loss results in a phenomenon known as forest fragmentation, where large forested areas are broken up into smaller patches, separated by roads, agriculture or other forms of human development. Wildlife in these spaces hence have less shelter, and are often more exposed to predators and poachers.
The hippos’ elusive nature also makes them challenging for scientists to observe in the wild.
“They’re nocturnal, and it’s really difficult to study them. They were actually discovered by Western science only in the middle of the 1800s,” said Professor Ian Chan, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Biological Sciences.
“So we really don’t know much about them and it’s worrying that they’re disappearing.”
Zoos, safaris and wildlife reserves such as the Singapore Zoo, play an important role in protecting these endangered animals.
The Singapore Zoo currently has five pygmy hippos – Minah, Psota, Miata, Bubu and Divo, with three being born there, said Saravanan Elangkovan, Mandai Wildlife Group’s Deputy Vice-President of Animal Care.
The oldest of the five, Minah, is almost 34, while the youngest, Miata, is just three. Pygmy hippos have an average lifespan of 30 to 55 years in captivity, though they usually do not live as long in the wild.
In order to ensure diversity in the genetic pool of pygmy hippos bred under human care, Mandai Wildlife Group has sent more than 24 individuals to zoos worldwide to join breeding programmes.
Most recently, a two-year-old male named Thabo was transferred to the Taipei Zoo to be paired with a mate, said Elangkovan.
Prof Chan also emphasised the role zoos play in the hippos’ conservation, and said: “Pygmy hippos breed very well in captivity and a lot of what we know comes from research on captive individuals.”
He added that wildlife in zoos are also important assurance populations, which keep endangered species from going extinct should anything happen to the natural populations in the wild.
Despite its successful breeding in captivity, conserving pygmy hippos in their natural habitat remains a foremost priority, said Prof Chan. This means stepping up enforcement to safeguard the hippos’ swamp and forest habitats, and protecting them from being poached and hunted.
“Every conservation situation is different and we definitely need conservationists on the ground, assessing threats and meeting the needs of the species,” said Prof Chan. - The Straits Times/ANN
