| Hippopotamus, File photo |
A male hippopotamus has been killed by another hippo in Dadinkowa River of Gombe State on Friday.
A fisherman, Abubakar Ruwa said that the hippos were fighting over territory and that the fight had lasted for days.
He said, “Usually Hippopotamus migrate from distances. Recently, we noticed that a hippopotamus migrated from Kiri Dam, to Dadinkowa River but as you know two males cannot stay together within the same space. Originally, we had a male and a female in that section of the river.
“We often noticed countless fights between the hippos until the visiting hippo finally killed the host hippo in other to dominate and take over the partner,” he said
The Director of Forestry, ministry of environment, Gombe State, Saad Hasidu, who arrived the scene of the incident with his team to find out the true state of things and the cause of death begged relevant agencies to come to the aid of the ministry in other to arrest the situation of hippo activities in the area.
He said, “I want to call on relevant bodies to assist this ministry to build Hippopotamus Sanctuary, where they (hippopotamus) can be taken care of, in other to reduce their attacks on crops, serve as a revenue generation option and reduce their self-inflicted deaths, which can lead to their extinction” he noted.
Meanwhile, community members welcomed the fact that they had meat that could be shared by several families.