Hippopotamus Pollution Essay

The hippopotamus is a very unique and interesting species. I don't believe that

pollution is a major factor when it comes to the affect on Hippopotamuses in east Africa.

Pollution is a major factor when it comes to life on many places in the world. However, I

don't believe that pollution necessarily affects Africa as much as it does other parts of

the world such as, for an example, California.

Many people believe that pollution is killing animals world wide. To some extent

this is actually true, but not specifically everywhere in the world. In California, pollution is

a humungous factor on the life that lives there on the land, flying in the sky, and even

living in the water. Plastic is one main factor in pollution. When people don't recycle

plastic it gets thrown into huge piles in an excluded area. Plastic is non-degradable so it

won't deteriorate over time. The plastic that gets thrown out unto the coastline drifts into

the ocean affecting the animal life in the sea. Birds and fish are ingesting little pieces of

plastic while trying to feed off of zooplankton. For every 6 pounds of pollution there is

only 1 pound of zooplankton.

Unlike California, Africa does not have nearly as big of a pollution problem. One

major factor is that the population is extremely less dense then that of California. There

are about 5,000 people per square mile in the heavily populated areas of California

where as there are only 500 people per square mile in the few heavily populated areas

of Africa. There are not too many Hippopotamuses in the north-western areas of the

Kilian Diers

Marine Biology

Mr. Girod

May 16, 2014

continent, but are many more in the south-eastern regions. Since the human population

is smal...

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...for the food chain, particularly for fish," says WWF's Marc Lunguy. If the

hippopotamus species would go instinct, the first loss would be the people in the region

who strive off of fish for their livelihoods.

The territory of hippopotamuses is pretty basic. They stay close to the water,

while never exceeding a max of 6 miles from the nearest water source while grazing. At

one time, they lived all across Africa, but are now extinct in northern and southern

Africa. Basically, the only part of Africa that hosts the soon to be extinct animal is

Eastern Africa. Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are the most commonly

known cities to host hippos. They live in herds that range from 10 all the way to 150

which are mostly females and their offspring. They are led by the dominant male hippos

who battle often, which is sometimes fatal, to be leader.