Hippo Hunting | Zambia: Hippo meat

Sunday, June 19, 2016

News from the River Horse's Mouth

A RIVER RUNS RED
Byline: Hermione River-Horse, from the River Express.
19 June - Dry Season, Zambia

Hermione River-Horse is an African correspondent covering issues affecting her species, the environment and the African continent for the River Express. She is a Gold Watermark winning journalist.*

________________________

Here on the banks of the Luangwa River a tragedy is unfolding, in the past few weeks at least 6 hippos have been shot, skinned and butchered [1]. We took to the sand bars to ask the affected Hippos how the killing is impacting their community.

It’s 5 am and the air and river is cool. The river’s levels are lowish, but nothing out of the ordinary, similar to other seasons at the same time of year. I have come out to interview the hippos in the South Luangwa National Park (SLNP), but these incidents that have so impacted their family are to be repeated in multiple locations along the Luangwa River in the Luangwa Valley as well as here in South Luangwa, also at Luambe NP and North Luangwa NP. Reportedly up to 2000 hippos will lose their lives in the killing seasons.

The scene appears peaceful, but as I approach the pod of hippos I can hear their levels of concern. Many have just returned from the night shift. The rumbles and snorts louder than usual, they are upset and stressed. No-one wants to be seen on camera. Names have been changed to protect identity.

*This is the transcript and description of those interviews.

[READ MORE]

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Did you want Anthrax with that?

Warning: Graphic images of butchery and skin lesion

[1] Illustration only. Removal of fresh hippopotamus meat from poached carcass

DNPW are saying the ‘cull’ (which is in fact ‘trophy hunting’) is to ‘control anthrax’. This appears to be a convenient excuse to raise some revenue. They can’t have it both ways can they?

Anthrax control v's Meat Sales...

[2] Image: Fair use from

None of the hippos who have been killed and butchered are being tested for anthrax (as far as I know) and the meat taken from the hippo’s bodies are already being sold from the back of the vehicles in the local villages for a K-tenner or so, per kilo.

Do the people buying the meat know that anthrax is a concern of DNPW or that the so called reason hippos are being killed is to ‘stop the spread of anthrax’.

The Director of DNPW, Paul Zyambo must be upfront about what this whole operation is all about. It is not good enough to call the operation an Health Issue and then potentially put people's lives at risk. It is not good enough to generate revenue from Trophy Hunting calling it a cull and selling the hippo's flesh from the back of vehicles.

Mr Zyambo cannot have it both ways. Either the hippos have anthrax and need to be 'culled' for safety reasons, therefore their meat cannot be sold and eaten without risking human lives, or they do not have anthrax and are being killed purely for revenue raising in a deal with a foreign trophy hunter.

If anthrax is (really) a concern why would the DNPW allow the the sale of the meat out of the back of the meat processor’s trucks to local people?

If this is an exercise in anthrax control, why doesn’t the DNPW burn the carcasses?

PS: If you know these men, please, keep a close eye on the skin of the Hippo butchers (pictured above) and anyone else who has handled or carried the Hippo’s flesh because if there is anthrax then lesions can appear on the skin called Cutaneous Anthrax Lesions.

[3] Image: Cutaneous Anthrax Lesion

*Humans and animals can ingest anthrax from carcasses of dead animals that are infected with Anthrax. In 2011 in Chama in eastern Zambia – 500 people got sick and 5 died after eating anthrax contaminated hippos. Handling or eating anthrax infected hippo meat can cause illness.

*http://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/news-multimedia/features/hungry_hippos [dot] html

_________________________

Note Image Sources - Fair Use
1. Arkive