Five animals that aren’t where they should be
5x5 Hippos, parakeets, bumblebees, sharks and pandas. When it comes to knowing their place, animals are the worst kind of migrants.
1 Hippos in Colombia There’s a thriving colony of hippopotami in Colombia, courtesy of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who kept them in his personal zoo for the benefit of local residents. The zoo at Hacienda Napoles was taken over by the Colombian government after Escobar was killed in 1993, but a few of the hippos escaped into the jungles and began breeding in the wild. The government now faces a challenge to control the new arrivals, who are loved by locals but could displace local wildlife and damage the ecosystem.
2 Parakeets in London No-one knows who introduced parakeets into London — Jimi Hendrix released a breeding pair from Carnaby Street in the 1960s, they may have escaped from the set of The African Queen in 1951, or from London Zoo during the blitz—but today they fill trees in the parks and gardens of south London. Like a flying rhododendron infestation, the ring-necked parakeets are putting native species at risk, but they’re also providing a food source for resurgent birds of prey including peregrine falcons, hobbies, kites and owls.
3 British bumblebees in New Zealand Short-haired bumblebees from the UK were introduced to New Zealand in the 19th Century by farmers who couldn’t get their crops of red clover to seed . The bees became extinct in the UK in 2000 due to disease and a loss of habitat, but in 2010 the New Zealand descendants of the exported bumblebees were brought back to re-establish a colony near Dungeness in Kent (although the project finally used Swedish bumblebees because the Kiwi bees were too inbred from years of isolation).
4 Sharks on golf course Imagine Snakes On A Plane, but starring Ronnie Corbett as a man who will play through at any cost (or worse still, 2011’s awful Shark Night 3D). That’s what happened at Brisbane’s Carbrook Golf Club when floods spilled bull sharks into a lake in 1996, and made themselves at home. The sharks weren’t caught on film until 2011, and the golf course has found they not only make a good tourist attraction, but they also discourage children from sneaking in at night to fish balls from the lake.
5 Pandas in the wild WTF are pandas doing in the wild? These cuddly idiots have evolved from being omnivorous bears to bamboo-chewing layabouts who can’t be bothered to reproduce. Useless in the forest, they’re perfect for the zoo, where their cuteness, lethargy, occasional playfulness and frequent stupidity make them the perfect catch for tourists. I have my doubts they even want to stay outside.
