Zambia has announced that it will resume the trophy hunting of hippos in order to prevent the spread of anthrax. However, wildlife activists say the cull will help fuel the hippo ivory trade.
The country aims to cull 2000 hippos living around the Luangwa River over the next five years. It says this will manage the population and control anthrax, which can infect people via hippos.
There are about 130,000 common hippos () left in the world. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, they are 鈥溾��.
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Zambia planned such a cull in 2016, but halted it under pressure from conservationists. Now the restarted cull is on the website of a South African safari company, Umlilo Safaris.
Anthrax outbreak
There is a link between hippos and anthrax. The disease is caused by soil-dwelling bacteria, and hippos are susceptible to infection because of their love of muddy water holes 鈥� as well as . This means hippo meat can sometimes be contaminated with anthrax.
Neighbouring Uganda has experienced , first in 2004 and . . The country claims low rainfall in the area of the Luangwa River is making a further outbreak more likely.
However, conservationists say Zambia鈥檚 proposed cull does not specifically target infected animals, and therefore might not work.
鈥淭he Department of National Parks and Wildlife has failed to provide robust, scientific evidence that an indiscriminate hippo cull of healthy animals would prevent a future outbreak of anthrax,鈥� says of the , which . 鈥淐ulling hippos stimulates breeding and ends up increasing the population.鈥�
The other kind of ivory
Travers also argues that legalising the hunting of hippos could fuel the trade in hippo ivory, which has increased in recent years following crackdowns on the illegal trade in elephant ivory.
鈥淗ippos are being increasingly targeted for their ivory as a replacement,鈥� says Travers. He says 60,000 kilograms of hippo ivory were imported by Hong Kong from 2004 to 2014.
Born Free also claims that, since 2010, more than 6000 hippo teeth, 2048 tusks, and over 1100 taxidermied hippos have been exported to the European Union.
Monetising the hunt for hippos, even if it is done to control an anthrax outbreak, could intensify this trend, argues Travers.
