Hippos Added to Wildlife Starving Due to Kenya Drought

Kenyan wildlife officials are distributing hay to areas where the starving hippos normally feed.

Wildlife officials in Kenya say that hippos as well as elephants are now perishing due to the protracted drought that has parched a broad swath of East Africa.

Fifteen hippos were found dead in Tsavo West National Park over the past several weeks.

Rangers say that drought has withered the grazing areas that the animals feed on when they are not submerged in pools during the day to escape the equatorial sun.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has begun to provide bales of hay around lakes and near river banks.

Some of the park’s lodges are also spreading kitchen scraps around where the toothy animals normally feed.

In July, (KWS) said that more than 40 elephants had died of thirst and starvation in the country’s Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu districts.