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The hippopotamus is one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, causing far more human deaths each year than other wild animals such as lions and crocodiles.
The droppings of hippos not only pose a huge threat to humans, but also have a fatal impact on other creatures, and it is understood that countless schools of fish are suffocated to death by hippos every year.
If this situation is not controlled, it is likely to cause a series of ecological and environmental problems, and even affect global climate change, so how terrible is hippo droppings?
Hippopotamus's terrifying bowel movements
Let's take a look at the Xi of the hippopotamus first, it is a semi-aquatic animal, spending much more time in the water than on land, and generally only comes out at night to feed.
The grass on the shore and the reeds in the water are the favorite food of hippos, and an adult hippopotamus probably eats more than 100 kilograms of food every day, which is equivalent to the weight of two adult women, which is very exaggerated.
Although hippos feed mainly on aquatic plants, this does not mean that they do not eat meat, animals such as baby elephants, ponies, calves and other animals can be food for their mouths.
If the hippopotamus is so able to eat, is its digestive system very developed? This is not the case, although the hippopotamus has a long intestine, but the digestion is very poor, which leads to the excrement of a lot of undigested forage.
And the hippopotamus is also a well-known "manure machine", which can discharge almost 100 catties of feces a day, most of which are green in color, and some are red, which looks like blood.
This is because the hippopotamus' skin secretes a red liquid to protect itself from UV rays and bacteria, which mixes with the hippopotamus' sweat and urine into the hippopotamus' feces to form a red dye.
So why do hippos pull so much manure? Actually, they have their own reasons.
Many times, hippos will use their tails to shake their droppings, making it fan-shaped, so that other hippos or intruders can more easily detect their presence and warn.
There is also a theory that hippopotamus feces are used to attract the opposite sex and mate because its feces contain a compound that can increase the level of sex hormones in hippos, thereby increasing hippos' libido and reproductive ability.
For the hippopotamus itself, feces are a beneficial behavior, but what is the effect on the outside world?
Suffocate thousands of fish
Because hippopotamus feces contain a lot of organic matter and nutrients, these substances are broken down by microorganisms in the water, constantly consuming the oxygen in the water, which leads to a sharp decrease in oxygen content in nearby waters.
We all know that fish cannot survive without oxygen, and plants such as aquatic plants and algae are also inseparable from oxygen, and a large amount of feces are stored in the water, causing the extinction and death of many fish and aquatic plants.
How scary is hippopotamus droppings?
In addition to causing serious water pollution, hippopotamus feces can also change the stability of the ecological balance.
Because during the re-decomposition of hippopotamus's feces, some toxic substances will be produced, such as hydrogen sulfide, nitrite, etc., which will cause harm to nearby organisms, such as fish ulcers, aquatic weeds, etc.
Think about what the consequences would be if nearby residents accidentally ate poisonous fish or plants.
Hippopotamus droppings can also affect the temperature and pH of the water body, which can adversely affect other organisms in the water, and some animals will also feed on hippopotamus droppings, thus spreading toxic substances to other ecosystems and areas, causing greater pollution and damage.
For example, some birds carry hippo droppings into the air, which causes substances such as hydrogen sulfide to disperse into the atmosphere, increasing the destruction of acid rain and ozone layer in the atmosphere.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, hippopotamus droppings may also affect climate change, because their droppings can release a large amount of greenhouse gases, which can increase the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in global temperatures, which in turn leads to a series of climate and environmental problems.
So hippopotamus feces is an invisible killer whose influence should not be underestimated, so is there any good solution?
Prevention and control methods
If you want to solve the problem of hippopotamus feces, you have to start with the hippopotamus itself, but this does not mean killing hippos, you must know that it is also a protected animal in some African countries, so we should find ways to control the number and population of hippos, so that they can live in harmony with the environment.
In fact, the biggest impact is still the water environment, which requires the local people to increase their governance capacity and restore the ecology and function of the waters, which is to clean up the feces in the waters.
In addition, hippos tend to be relatively quiet, they will not easily attack and harm humans, but it is also necessary to popularize the knowledge and hazards of hippopotamus feces to the people around them, increase human prevention and prevention, and also find ways to improve the conversion rate of hippopotamus feces and improve human industry and economy.
In general, hippopotamus dung is very scary, but it is also a very magical biological phenomenon, not only related to the survival and reproduction of hippos, but also related to the quality and function of the human environment.
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