TIL: fucking hippos
so it turns out that hippos are possibly the most deadly animal in Africa besides disease-bearing mosquitoes. that's right. more than lions or elephants or crocodiles or cheetahs or ostriches or anything else. the numbers on how many people hippos kill a year seem varied between 500-3,000 depending on the source. males are territorial and can get over 6,000 pounds, and females are very protective of their young. they're just nasty-tempered and dangerous as hell, and have been known to sling humans around like a large dog playing with a rag doll. they have 20-inch canines that, combined with a 2,000 PSI bite, can chomp a crocodile to pieces.



now imagine...

"Notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar famously kept hippos, giraffes, elephants and other exotic animals on his estate in northwestern Colombia. When Escobar was killed in 1993, the Colombian government seized all of his assets, including his menagerie. Most of his animals were transferred to zoos and aquariums, but his four hippos were left to fend for themselves.

"Those four animals made their way into Colombia's waterways, where they multiplied. Today, between 40 and 60 of their descendants roam the landscape, according to an investigation by biologists at the University of California, San Diego."

talk about an invasive species YOU DON'T WANT IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.