If you want to say what is the most stubborn way to die in the world, being suffocated by other people's must definitely be counted as one... Today, let's talk about how lethal the dung machine hippopotamus is!
Schools of fish mysteriously die
In Kenya and Tanzania, there is a river that meanders through it, and that is the Mara River, and a few years ago, fishermen discovered that, since then, the Mara River often floats in large areas with schools of strangely dead fish.
Local patrols were also confused, speculating that it might be due to pesticide toxins sprayed by farmers in the upstream area.
But after a series of field studies, the scientists found that things were not so simple, and the cause of death of these fish was related to the huge amount of feces excreted by the 4,000 hippos living in the Mara River Basin.
It turned out that the flocks of dead fish were actually suffocated by the huge amount of feces excreted by the hippopotamus that inhabited the Mara River!
"Manure maker" hippopotamus
Hippopotamus is an amphibian mammal, living in the tropical aquatic grass abundant areas of Africa, huge and bloated, 2-5 meters long, adult hippos weigh about 1.5, is the third largest animal on land.
Hippos are the largest animals with the largest mouth on land, which can be opened at a 90-degree angle, and have long and large incisors and canine teeth in the mouth, and are fang-shaped, especially the lower incisors extend parallel to the front like a shovel, which is the main weapon when attacking.
Hippos are actually omnivores, but most of the time they are vegetarian, in order to maintain the physical functions required for a large body, their intake is very amazing, an adult hippopotamus must eat at least 100 kilograms of food a day to fill the stomach.
Eating more is equal to pulling more... Hippopotamus poop behavior, many people should have seen it from the Internet.
Scientists believe that hippopotamus pooping behavior may have several meanings.
The first is territorial awareness, that is to say, the more the feces are scattered, the more it represents the wider the scope of the territory. The second is courtship, the higher the feces are thrown, the stronger their strength is, which can attract the attention of the opposite sex.
The third is the logo, hippos have poor vision, they use their fecal smell to return to the original route.
How horrible hippopotamus is
A single hippopotamus eats more, pulls more, and the feces of multiple hippos in a pool gather, and the number is very large.
Hippos themselves are social animals, generally led by female hippos, the number of groups is generally 5 to 30, and large groups can reach 100.
During the dry season, the weather is very hot, and hippos will soak in water for up to 16 hours a day, so defecation is also in the water.
The Mara River has about 171 hippopotamus ponds, which are distributed in tributaries and main rivers along the route. According to the survey, these 4,000 hippos leave more than 8,500 kilograms of feces in the water every day!
Due to the very high load rate of organic matter and nutrients in hippotamus feces, it will consume a large amount of oxygen in the water, resulting in lack of oxygen in the water.
With the deposition of feces, a large amount of feces is decomposed, and the bacterial microbial activities that devour these feces produce various chemicals, such as ammonium, hydrogen sulfide, methane and carbon dioxide, etc. Such fecal water is tantamount to "chemical weapons" for fish...
When the rainy season comes, the river rises and will gradually reconnect the hippopotamus ponds.
When the surging current rushes into the pond, it stirs up rotten dirt, and at the same time, it is wrapped in a large amount of hippopotamus manure and rushes downstream, so that the downstream fish lose their lives...
However, this matter can not all let the hippopotamus carry the pot...
A long time ago, the hippopotamus of the Mara River could also "live in harmony" with the local fish. Originating in kenya's rainy mountainous regions, the Mara River used to have a stable flow and did not stop even during the dry season.
However, in the past few years, due to the vigorous development of agriculture in the surrounding areas and the introduction of a large amount of water for irrigation, many tributaries have begun to dry up during the dry season.
At the same time, with the expansion of human activities, the forest area continues to shrink, coupled with the reasons of climate change, affecting the local water cycle, so that the Mara River, which has been flowing continuously, began to stop flowing during the dry season.
So, in the final analysis, it is human activities that break the way hippos and fish get along, which will lead to this "tragedy".
Hippo: Don't you just want to pull a stick normally... It's not bad for me!