Pablo Escobar’s Cocaine Hippos Are Legally People, Court Rules

All was well until the hippos started fucking. Now, there are up to 120 hippos roaming around Colombia, and they are considered one of the top invasive species in the world. Authorities have weighed a plan to kill the hippos off and on since 2009, and its recently gained steam.

Last July, Colombian attorney Luis Domingo Gómez Maldonado filed a lawsuit on the hippos’ behalf to save them from being euthanized. Instead, the case recommends sterilization. Colombian officials announced a plan to use a chemical contraceptive developed by the U.S. Agriculture Department to sterilize “the main group” of the hippos, and the region’s environmental agency Cornare began to implement the plan on Friday, darting 24 hippos. The suit, though, argues for the use of a different contraceptive drug, which it says is safer. And it also notes that the proposal to deal with the hippos could still leave the door open for some of them to be killed.

#animalkingdom #escobarhippos

Zebra’s stripes are a no fly zone for flies

Zebras are famous for their contrasting black and white stripes – but until very recently no one really knew why they sport their unusual striped pattern. It’s a question that’s been discussed as far back as 150 years ago by great Victorian biologists like Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.

Since then many ideas have been put on the table but only in the last few years have there been serious attempts to test them. These ideas fall into four main categories: Zebras are striped to evade capture by predators, zebras are striped for social reasons, zebras are striped to keep cool, or they have stripes to avoid attack by biting flies.

I’ve waited my whole life for this.

#animalkingdom

The goddamn feral Florida monkeys. They throw poop at you. And then you get the fatal herpes.

And then you die. 🐵☠️

#animalkingdom #rip

Let’s check in with Pablo Escobar’s herd of feral hippos

Further complicating the effort to control their reproduction is that it’s incredibly hard to castrate a hippo: first, because it annoys the hippo; and…

Somehow I missed this in my internet travels.

#animalkingdom #escobarhippos

Gorillas discovered having lesbian sex for the very first time

Female gorillas have been documented engaging in lesbian sex for the first time.

The behaviour was observed by scientists during a research trip to the Rwandan section of the Virunga mountain range in central Africa.

The wild mountain gorillas, observed by a team led by Dr Cyril Grueter of the University of Western Australia, are believed to gain pleasure from having sex and may do it when they have been rejected by males.

This. Because it’s important

#animalkingdom #naturerocks #lgbt

I was just reading that New Guinea has six species of tree kangaroos.

I also learned a new phrase: Arboreal locomotion.

“Arboreal locomotion” is the locomotion of animals in trees.

#animalkingdom

Python Dies After Eating Giant Porcupine in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG: An African rock python died in unusual circumstances after swallowing a giant 13.8 kilogramme porcupine at a private game park in South Africa, the manager said today.

The 3.9 metre snake should have been able to cope with the porcupine no matter how prickly the quills, Lake Eland Game Reserve’s Jennifer Fuller told AFP.

But she suspects the python became stressed from being watched by visitors fascinated by the bulge in its body - and died when the quills got stuck as it tried to regurgitate the animal.

“It’s not unusual for pythons to eat porcupines, it’s part of their diet,” Fuller said.

It’s kinda like when somebody’s watching you poop.

#animalkingdom

#photos #animalkingdom

Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Castrate a Hippo

Chances are you’ve never wondered how difficult it is to remove the testes of a hippopotamus. Other people have been thinking hard about it, though, because in fact it’s almost impossible.

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I actually took this yesterday afternoon at Gardenology but it seems fitting for right now.

Turtles always remind me of old men. Might be the wrinkly necks.

#photos #animalkingdom