As bans on elephant ivory are tightened, poachers are killing hippos for their teeth, experts warn.
Ten countries in West and Central Africa say there has continued to be a sharp decline in numbers, due to poaching and land degradation.in the run-up to a CITES meeting in Panama last month, but this would only have been possible under CITES rules if there had been more than 50% drop in the population in the last 10 years, and an IUCN analysis did not support this conclusion.
"There has been very little scientific research on the actual population of hippos in all of these range countries," she says. "While at the same time, range countries know what is going on with their hippos within their territories, so they should not be ignored." 770,000kg of hippo teeth were legally traded between 1975 and 2017 - the size of the illegal trade is unknown