ordinarily , dump fish - killing food waste into river is a human being ’s job . But hippos seem to be doing it , too , through their routine mass pooping events .
At least , that ’s what a team of scientist in the United States found in a Modern study . They observe hippos congregating in small stretches of fresh water in Tanzania and Kenya ’s Mara River during the dry season . Over three years , there were 49 “ high-pitched rate of flow ” events where poop ran en masse down the river—13 of which depleted the river of atomic number 8 . The team also observed nine Pisces the Fishes kill over five years .
Reading scientists discuss hippo crap is especially rewarding . From the paper , published subject access inNature Communications :
The river horse ( Hippopotamus amphibius ) , which has long been recognize as an ecosystem engine driver through its grazing and wallowing activities , transports massive amounts of organic issue and nutrients from mundane grazing country into aquatic ecosystems through egestion and excretion in East Africa , there are an guess 70,000 hippopotami , potentially loading 52,800 metrical ton year−1 of organic topic forthwith into aquatic ecosystem . Laboratory and airfield studies suggest that these input signal may powerfully work aquatic biogeochemistry and solid food entanglement .
52,800 metrical piles is a whole muckle of hippo crap .
When it pay off dry , hippos congregate in the remaining water and Irish bull . That crap causes the stuff on the bottom of the H2O to decompose and sap it of its O . The paper describes how these hippo pools periodically “ redden ” into the repose of the river , cause mickle of O - spare body of water to flow through .
This flushing is “ a primary driver of ” river - wide oxygen depletion events . The scientist measured the events by hang up out downstream of the hippo pools and measuring the water , accord to the paper .
All this poo seems to kill fish , yes , but perhaps it ’s just a part of a salubrious river ecosystem . This is something that “ challenges our belief of the character land of river in the absence of human influence , ” as in , what rivers were like before we got there .
And , as Ed Yong at the Atlantic key out it , the Mara is a trulystrange ecosystem . Hordes of wildebeest drown in the river during the wet time of year , bestow further food to the weewee .
Adding humans to such an ecosystem could be bad . Dams have been proposed for the river . If the poop purge serves an crucial function in this roach of life history , then a dam could potentially leave to a decline in quality of the habitat , the scientist compose .
Anyway , if you have an idyllic view of nature untouched by human being , you might need to change what you consider “ idyllic . ” Things are pretty gross out there .
[ Nature Communications , The Atlantic ]
AfricaAnimalsBiologyScience
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