Mu Deng: The famous hippo’s real home has disappeared. Can the world restore it?

The playful, stocky mammal that made headlines from its enclosure at a zoo in Thailand has a sad story about its hippo friends.

Mu Deng is a two-month-old pygmy hippo who loves to flap his ears and splash around in the water. She lives the life of a superstar at Khao Kheao Public Zoo, where she draws huge crowds, but there’s little chance of meeting her relatives in the wild.

The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) is critically endangered, with an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 individuals. The decline of the pygmy hippopotamus has been significant, with a long-term survey in a national park in Ivory Coast discovering 12,000 pygmy hippos in 1982. In 1997 there were 5,000 and in 2011 it was 2,000. These hippos are now rare throughout their native West Africa.

Perhaps it is not surprising that pygmy hippos feel most comfortable deep in the forest. Early European explorers who visited Liberia wrote in their diaries that the hippo foraged at night and chose to hide in the water or in dense vegetation during the day.

This species is so secretive that 19th-century explorers would abandon the route for a while if someone walked across one of their paths or tunnels (used to navigate through dense vegetation). I realized that I would.

sensitive soul

Extensive deforestation and constant disturbance are making it difficult for the pygmy hippopotamus to survive, requiring a combination of dense forests and wetlands that are already restricted to small areas. West Africa’s forests have lost more than 80% of their original area, and wild pygmy hippos are confined to small areas in Gola National Forest (Sierra Leone) and Sapo National Park (Liberia).

Forests are disappearing so rapidly that there simply isn’t enough space for pygmy hippos to find food, grow, and reproduce. Research in and around the Gola Rainforest has revealed that many individuals are hiding in former farmland outside the protected area.

Cocoa production is probably the biggest cause of deforestation, followed by gold mining and unsustainable logging. These activities are currently encroaching on forest reserves and other supposedly protected areas.

Previous forest conservation efforts have ended in failure. Conservationists believe that in contrast to top-down state management and enforcement models, farmers should be financially rewarded, local forestry communities should protect forests, and sustainably manage what remains. It advocates a system of empowerment.

treasures of the world

Forest loss in West Africa is particularly heartbreaking, with studies showing that the remaining forest areas are some of the most productive on Earth, potentially surpassing even the Amazon rainforest.

Particularly productive forests harness more of the sun’s energy, turn it into delicious herbs and juicy fruits – more food to feed animals such as pygmy hippos, and foster rich biodiversity.

Until extensive fieldwork began in 2016, researchers had underestimated the value of West Africa’s forests, particularly their ability to store carbon and thereby offset global warming. This oversight is due in part to the fact that these forests are hidden by clouds, making satellite observations difficult, and to the relative neglect of forests by Western researchers compared to other ecosystems in other regions. This is due to the fact that

Mu Deng’s family is not the only one at risk. West Africa’s forests are home to more than 900 bird species and nearly 400 mammal species, representing more than a quarter of all African mammal species. Their future is highly threatened by large-scale deforestation.

The value of West Africa’s forests is undervalued and has been left off the global forest restoration priority list. Sadly, it is no surprise that deforestation continues. Ghana lost 44,500 acres of forest in 2022 alone (twice the size of Manchester), an increase of nearly 70% from 2021.

Each tropical forest contributes to irreplaceable biodiversity. From the elusive mammals of West Africa to the vibrant birdlife of Southeast Asia, these ecosystems are equally important. Their recovery requires comprehensive planning to help local communities manage their long-term health.

The global effort to designate 30% of Earth’s land and oceans as protected areas by 2030 (known as 30×30) aims to designate 30% of Earth’s land and oceans as protected areas, ignoring the planet’s other biodiversity hotspots. or two large areas should not be protected. The lesson from Mu Deng’s Vanishing House is to value ecosystems equally and plan their conservation with equal care.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.