Pablo Escobar’s Fugitive Hippo Killed in Colombia

It’s the sort of headline that you’d expect to see in one of those trashy black-and-white tabloid magazines claiming to have found the secret island home of Elvis, Tupac and Marilyn Monroe – but believe it or not, it’s true.

Famed cocaine baron Pablo Escobar had an exotic collection of animals on his ranch in Colombia, and three hippos escaped almost three years ago. One was just shot and killed.

From The Telegraph:

Authorities ordered that the hippos, two adults and a calf, be hunted down and killed amid concerns they were damaging crops and endangering humans, the Guardian reports.

“It was only a question of time before those animals hurt someone,” the environment minister, Carlos Costa, said. “After more than two years of trying to capture them, the decision [to kill them] was a sound one.”

Escobar was cornered and shot dead in 1993.

Hippos weren’t the only exotic creatures kept on Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles ranch – there were also kangaroos, elephants and rhinos. After Escobar’s death, the state took over the ranch and most of the animals went to zoos. Strangely, about two dozen hippos were left to themselves on the ranch and in 2006, a male and a female escaped and produced a calf.

We’ll spare you the photo of the dead hippo, because it’ll only give you a major case of the sads. Why do narcissistic rich people insist on using exotic animals as a status symbol? It’s sickening.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: elespectador.com

Amazon Summer Sandals Made from Recycled Tires

Everybody needs a good pair of sandals for the summertime, and there are plenty of options out there that make creative use of recycled materials. Amazon Sandals, made in Brazil, are constructed from recycled tires.

Amazon sandals mold into the shape of your feet after a few days, have an excellent grip and last longer than the average flip-flop. They come in two styles – ‘Tupi’ with a black sole and ‘Cipo’, which has natural fibers from the Cipo plant running through the soles. Both styles are available in a range of 5 strap colors: gold, black, silver, green and white.

20 million tires are discarded every year in Brazil, ending up in landfills, lakes and rivers. Aside from being unsightly litter, they collect rainwater and become breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Amazon takes thousands of these tires out of the waste stream by cutting them into chips, pressing them into powder, purifying them via a system of sieves and then pressing the rubber into sandal soles. So far, Amazon has recycled over 800,000 tires.

Link [Amazon Sandals]

The Mystery of Chile’s Dead Birds and Fish

Why are so many of Chile’s birds and fish dying? Scientists are trying to determine what may have caused the deaths of hundreds of penguins, millions of sardines and 2,000 baby flamingos in recent months. Some speculate that global warming may be to blame.

From the Miami Herald:

The events started to unfold in March, when the remains of about 1,200 penguins were found on a remote beach in southern Chile. Then came the sardines — tons of them — dead and washed up on a nearby stretch of coastline. The stench forced nearby schools to close, and the army was called in to shovel piles of rotting fish off the sand.

Farther north, thousands of rare Andean flamingos abandoned their nests on a salt lake in the Atacama Desert. The eggs failed to hatch and, over a period of three months, all 2,000 chicks died. The extent of the damage was discovered in April, during an inspection.

No one knows for sure what caused these three apparently unrelated ecological tragedies, although there are many theories. Global warming has been blamed, as have overfishing, pollution and bacterial disease. In the north, ecologists have accused mining companies of fatally altering the flamingos’ habitat by draining the area of subterranean water.

While some fishing authorities believe the sardines died due to a rise in water temperatures, local fishermen suspect that trawlermen hauled a huge quantity of sardines from the ocean, and then dumped the ones they couldn’t carry back to shore.

The flamingo deaths are even more disturbing, especially as the Andean is the rarest species of flamingo in the world. Some ecologists disagree with placing blame on mining companies, since the summer that just ended was unusually dry and hot, causing the lakes to shrink and become more saline.

It’s clear that Chile needs to take action to protect its rich diversity of wildlife, but there’s only so much the government can do if global warming is the cause. The entire world is responsible for turning this thing around.

Link [Miami Herald]

Photo credit: The Guardian

Brazilian Cattle Ranchers Ask to Destroy Forest Lands of Uncontacted Tribe

In yet another battle between ranchers and indigenous peoples of South America, a cattle ranching company is set to destroy the forest where one of the last ‘uncontacted’ tribes in the world live. Survival International reports that the company, Yaguarete Pora S.A., requested permission from the Paraguayan government to tear down the forest on the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians’ land.

From Twilight Earth:

“We urge Paraguay’s government not to allow Yaguarete to work on the Totobiegosode’s land. To do so would violate their rights under international law and the UN’s Declaration on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and may well destroy them as a people.” – Stephen Corry, director of Survival

The cattle company, Yaguarete Pora S.A., already own the land, but their license to work the area was rescinded by the government after satellite photos showing the destruction of the forest were published last year. The company also kept an investigative team from Paraguay’s Environment Ministry out of the area, adding to the questions many local organizations have about the impact of Yaguarete’s business on the forest.

A local support group for the tribe, GAT, said, “The Environment Ministry must not grant a new licence to Yaguarete. If it does, the last of the uncontacted Totobiegosode could be wiped out.”

It’s not a done deal – yet. The Paraguayan government has yet to respond. But, unfortunately, South American countries struggling to improve their economies tend to side with business when it comes to issues like this.

Survival International is working to protect tribal peoples and their land, and they need our help. Please consider donating even a small amount to help them in this battle.

Link [Twilight Earth] + [Survival International]

Photo credit: Survival International

Rehabilitated Penguins Released in South America

Ready, get set, go! On Oct 4th, after months of rehabilitation, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) released 372 Magellanic penguins in Brazil. Watch as they find their way back to the ocean:

The International Fund for Animal Welfare works to improve the welfare of wild and domestic animals throughout the world by reducing commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. IFAW works around the world to rescue animals in harm’s way and to provide shelter and care for orphaned, injured, or mistreated animals, including stranded sea mammals and birds affected by oil spills.

Rising Food Prices May Help U.S. War on Drugs

In a strange and unexpected twist, the rising costs of food may help the United States on its long-running battle against illegal drugs. Farmers in Bolivia are replacing coca, cocaine’s raw ingredient, with food crops in many instances. The United States has long tried to get Bolivian farmers to substitute coca crops with food crops, providing incentives, but Bolivian president Evo Morales fought the attempts. Morales defends the right to grow the plant, which has a traditional use as a mild stimulant with medicinal qualities. However, farmers are beginning to see benefits to growing food.

From The International Herald Tribune:

The Chapare region’s coca growers’ union, of which Morales is still president, is requiring each of its 35,000 members to plant one hectare of rice this year as part of a government plan for coca farmers to plant 50,000 hectares of rice. The region, a stretch of central Bolivian foothills, now raises just 9,000 hectares of coca.

If they limit their coca crop to a cato, growers are entitled to loans of 3,600 bolivianos to plant rice, corn and other increasingly lucrative foodstuffs, and even a grant of 14,400 bolivianos to build a house.

The amount of rice that the coca union is requiring could earn the same as a cato of coca, though it requires six times the land and a lot more labor. But the price of rice has tripled in Bolivia since last year and is continuing to rise.

Rice also feeds a hungry domestic market, whereas the U.S.-backed crop replacement efforts promoted export products like bananas and pineapples and pitted the Chapare’s poor farmers against global agribusiness giants like Dole and Chiquita.

If the farmers find that producing domestic food crops rather than coca is profitable, more may abandon coca growing. That would ease pressure on the United States government, who have long tried to find ways to beat cocaine at the source.

Well, rice and cocaine are both white, and both come in plastic baggies…

Link [International Herald Tribune] via [Wannabe Hippy]
Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman