Hippos Butchered by the Hundreds in Congo Wildlife Park

[Orstio]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061024-hippo-congo.html?source=rss

Hippopotamuses are being butchered by the hundreds inside a Central African wildlife reserve, conservation groups report.

An aerial census conducted yesterday put the hippo population in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at 629.

This represents a 98 percent crash in numbers since the 1970s, when there were some 30,000 animals, according to the Frankfurt Zoological Society based in Germany, which carried out the census.

In recent weeks about 400 hippos have been slain, according to Emmanuel de Merode, head of the Africa Conservation Fund based in Kenya.

The killing is being blamed on Congolese militia currently operating inside the park. The rebels are believed to be eating and selling hippo meat and taking the animals' teeth for ivory.

[Astronuc]

That's very unfortunate, but DRC is a mess at the moment.