Apparently, Pablo Escobar's private Hippos have gone feral and multiplied from 4 to 16, occupying nearby waters and foraging for food-

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-hip...0,4603981,full.story

The government wants to get rid of them, but I would be curious to see wild Hippos proliferate in the South American ecosystem Of course, the lack of genetic diversity would prevent this from occurring, but it's still an fun idea...

I think it would take a few generations before any sign of genetic problems would show up in a situation like that.

Unless something has changed over the past few years, researchers are fairly certain that all cheetahs can be traced back to one single female.

Due to differences in environment and food stuffs there should be changes in their physiology and possibly behavior, in fact a whole new sub-species could evolve.

That was an interesting article. It would be bizarre to come across zebras, giraffe, etc. wandering in the jungle.

You can hunt eland and waterbucks in some places of the brazilian Matto Grosso (matto means bush or forest and grosso thick)..

Some wealthy farmers released them MANY years ago. I have talked to a chap who has hunted waterbucks there and told me about the increadible trophy quality of them. Not much info after that.

L

Lorenzo you are rigth ,i known people who hunted many african antilopes in the AMAZON idont know the population but they are totally wild .Juan

Interesting. Bushbuck in the Amazon would be a hoot.

I'd vote for filling the canyons around here and stocking with Hippo!!

Crocs Too!!!

Maybe in 20 years, we'll find there is a good tiger population there!
We're scheduled to leave in 6 weeks for the Gran Chaco (south of the Amazon), where a totally new large species of Peccary was discovered in the 1970's.

Are you sure they are hippos and not women from Bolivia?? There are similarities!

quote:

large species of Peccary was discovered

6000 lb hairless red Peccary........

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:

quote:

large species of Peccary was discovered

6000 lb hairless red Peccary........

Might wish for a bigger gun!

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
I think it would take a few generations before any sign of genetic problems would show up in a situation like that.

Unless something has changed over the past few years, researchers are fairly certain that all cheetahs can be traced back to one single female.

I guess it would depend on how many recessive genes are in the Columbian Hippo population that would determine inbreeding problems. But scientists say that all humans have a common ancestor, no?
I still think it would be interesting from a scientific standpoint to see how well a large, aquatic African animal can fare on a different continent.
If the European boar can be introduced to the South American ecosystem and thrive there, why can't the Hippo? Why not let more biodiversity come naturally to South America? They're already there, why not leave them alone?

quote:

Originally posted by SGraves155:

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:

quote:

large species of Peccary was discovered

6000 lb hairless red Peccary........

Might wish for a bigger gun!