Hippopotamus, Kenya

The hippopotamus amphibious has the reputation of being the most dangerous and the most unpredictable animal in Africa. Its cohabitation with man is difficult and it does not hesitate to attack fishermen’s boats. Hunters, poachers in particular, have decimated hippopotamuses for their meat or to sell their ivory teeth, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 95% of them have been exterminated since 1994, after 8 years of war and merciless slaughter on the East side of the country. As a result, this species which is emblematic of Africa has the sad honor of being on the Red List of Threatened Species since 2006, next to the polar bear, the Dama Gazelle, and various species of ocean sharks, freshwater fish and Mediterranean flowers. In 2011, in total, 712 species out of the 62.000 animal and vegetable species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) were officially extinct, 33 exist only in captivity or in cultivation and 19.570 species were threatened with extinction: one in three amphibians, a quarter of conifers, a quarter of mammals and one in eight birds. In 99% of cases, man is solely responsible for the threat hanging over these species.