Hippopotamus lemerlei (Lemerle's Hippopotamus)

[Dean Onessimo]

Does anybody create a page on the Lemerle's Hippopotamus?

[Peter]

You mean the Hippopotamus lemerlei, the Madagascan Dwarf Hippopotamus.

For now we will not create a page on this species, because we don't have much information on this species.

The only information we have is from the 2003 IUCN red list of threatened species:

The youngest 14C date on material from H. lemerlei (collected from Itampolo) is 980 ± 200 rcyrbp (Mahé and Sourdat 1972, Dewar 1984). Nevertheless, the ubiquity of hippo remains in sites of apparently recent vintage and the widespread oral tradition of the hippo-like lalomena (Flacourt 1661) led MacPhee and Flemming (1999) to include this species, and its undated relative H. madagascariensis, in their list of recent extinctions.

If you have more information, you could make us very happy by sending it to us! E-mail: [e-mail] or by posting here.

[Peter]

Dean has mailed me the following information:

I found some info on Lemerle's Hippo:

One of two species of small hippos native to Madagascar, the remains of H. lemerlei have been found in many parts of the island. About half to two-thirds the size of living Hippopotamus amphibius from East Africa, Lemerle's hippo seems to have been adapted to an amphibious lifestyle much like that of its larger mainland relative. Another genus, the Malagasy hippo (H. madagascariensis), seems to have had a restricted range in the southern part of the island--and was possibly terrestrial. Although both species are presumed to have disappeared before AD 1500, the hippos of Madagascar continue to live in oral traditions of the Malagasy people as the mysterious lalomena. Large assemblages of skeletons are known from some sites, but the only evidence of human interaction consists of a few examples of butchered long bones.

[Prolagus]

Hello!
The Little Hippos from Madagascar diet out in the late Pleistocene,some Specimen lived until 1000 Years before the beginning of the historical time

[Peter]

As I mentioned the youngest find dates from about 980! Hut because the IUCN has included them into their red list they are also automatically listed on the Recently Extinct Animals website. Justification from IUCN as mentioned before: "the ubiquity of hippo remains in sites of apparently recent vintage and the widespread oral tradition of the hippo-like lalomena (Flacourt 1661) led MacPhee and Flemming (1999) to include this species, and its undated relative H. madagascariensis, in their list of recent extinctions. "

[another specialist]

Also view this thread as it's closely related to this thread

extinctanimals.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=artiodactyla&action=display&thread=1115328280

[another specialist]

Recent survival of the Madagascar megafauna
In the last pages of his book Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées (1955), Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that there was no hope for the survival of large unknown animals in Madagascar, which were only known through traditional lore. But the "father of cryptozoology" may have been too cautious.

In July and August 1995, David Burney, of the university of Fordham, and Ramilisonina, of the Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie of Antananarivo, asked old men about the animals of their aread (Belo-sur-mer, Antsira and Ambararata, on the SW coast of Madagascar). Several natives claimed they observed, sometimes recently, animals unknown in the present fauna.

Both researchers published the results of their investigations in American Anthropologist of December 1998.

One of these mysterious animals, known as kilopilopitsofy, was described by Jean Noelson Pascou, 85 years old, who saw this animal several times, last time in 1976. According to Pascou, it is cow-sized, has no horns, its skin is dark, and pink round the eyes and the mouth, with large floppy ears. When the scientists showed him a drawing of an elephant, he said that the animal was not so big, its mouth was wider, and it was aquatic. Its cry was similar to that of a hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius).

Both authors conclude that the kilopilopitsofy might be Hippopotamus lemerlei or H. madagascariensis, known from fossil remains in Madagascar.

References :

BURNEY, David A., and RAMILISONINA
1998 The Kilopilopitsofy, Kidoky, and Bokyboky : accounts of strange animals from Belo-sur-mer, Madagascar, and the megafaunal "extinction window". American Anthropologist, 100 [n° 4] : 957-966 (December).

HEUVELMANS, Bernard
1955 Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées. Paris, Plon.

MacPHEE, R.D.E., and D. A. BURNEY
1991 Dating of modified femora of extinct dwarf Hippopotamus from southern Madagascar : Implications for constraining human colonization and vertebrate extinction events. Journal of Archeological Science, 18 : 695-706.

SHUKER, Karl P. N.
2000 Catch a kilopilopitsofy ! Fortean Times, n° 131 : 48 (February).



perso.wanadoo.fr/cryptozoo/actualit/2000/madagascar_eng.htm

[chinadavid]

J.Diamond c1993 published a note in Nature reporting hippo bones from Madagascar with cutmarks proving that hippos & man coexisted on the island
David Ewbank

[Peter]

Yes that is true, I've heard about that too.

[another specialist]

Red List Category & Criteria EX ver 3.1 (2001)
Year Assessed 2002
Assessor/s Pig, Peccary & Hippo Specialist Group
Evaluator/s Grubb, P. & Oliver, W.L.R. (Pig, Peccary & Hippo Red List Authority)
Justification The youngest 14C date on material from H. lemerlei (collected from Itampolo) is 980 ± 200 rcyrbp (Mahé and Sourdat 1972, Dewar 1984). Nevertheless, the ubiquity of hippo remains in sites of apparently recent vintage and the widespread oral tradition of the hippo-like lalomena (Flacourt 1661) led MacPhee and Flemming (1999) to include this species, and its undated relative H. madagascariensis, in their list of recent extinctions.
www.redlist.org/search/details.php?species=40782

[another specialist]

chinadavid said:

J.Diamond c1993 published a note in Nature reporting hippo bones from Madagascar with cutmarks proving that hippos & man coexisted on the island
David Ewbank

Same here = heard of it too

[another specialist]

Extinct Malagasy Hippopotamuses


Stuenes (1989) showed that two kinds of dwarf hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus lemerlei and H. madagascariensis) survived late into the Quaternary on Madagascar, and Faure & Guerin (1990) have described another and larger species, H. laloumena. H. lemerlei occurred on the island at least until 980 + 200 yrs. B. P., but neither the H. madagascariensis or H. laloumena material has been dated, though both are believed to be Holocene in age. The latter species is known only from a lower jaw and limb bones obtained near Mananjary on the east coast. It was largest of the three species but was not as big as H. amphibius, which it otherwise appears to have resembled closely. H. lemerlei was somewhat larger than H. madagascariensis and differed from it in that the skulls of adults were markedly (presumably sexually) dimorphic in size. These two smaller hippos also appear to have differed in their ecology. Like H. laloumena, H. lemerlei (Plate ///) resembled a small H. amphibius and probably had similar habits. Its remains have been found mostly in the coastal lowlands. H. madagascariensis was a more terrestrial species, subfossils of which have been located in the central highlands. Recently, Harris (1991) has reassessed the systematics of the two smaller hippos and concluded that the more terrestrial species, madagascariensis, should be placed in the genus Hexaprotodon. Inferences to be drawn are firstly that each of the surviving species of hippos had close relatives on Madagascar, and secondly that Madagascar had been colonised three times by hippopotamuses! Early human colonisation of Madagascar, which occurred c. 1,500 yrs BP, is implicated in their extinction, though climatic change may also have been a factor.

moray.ml.duke.edu/projects/hippos/SSC/4-1HippoTaxonomy.doc

[sebbe67]

Two kinds of pygmy hippos inhabited the island. The Madagascar Hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus lemerlei), an amphibious species, and Hippopotamus madagascariensis, a forest species, were both about 6.5 feet long and 2.5 feet tall, smaller than the Common Hippopotamus of Africa, which is about 10 feet long (Tyson 2000). From genetic and anatomical analysis, both seem to have evolved from the latter species (Tyson 2000). The hippos had been widely distributed and very common prior to the arrival of the Malagasy (Dewar 1984). Their bones have been found with marks indicating that they had been butchered (Tyson 2000). Both died out long before Europeans arrived.

[another specialist]

source for above

www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/madagascar_human.php

[RSN]

I have a picture! I need only find it, soon I´ll post here.

[another specialist]

rsn said:

I have a picture! I need only find it, soon I´ll post here.

can't wait RSN

[sordes]

Here is a "life-description" of the animal: www.science-frontiers.com/sf124/sf124p07.htm

[another specialist]

sordes said:

Here is a "life-description" of the animal: www.science-frontiers.com/sf124/sf124p07.htm

[another specialist]

sordes said:

Here is a "life-description" of the animal: www.science-frontiers.com/sf124/sf124p07.htm

Late Survival Of The Kilopilopitsofy And Kidoky
Cryptozoological articles are rare in the mainstream science literature, but a 1999 number of the American Anthropologist has surprised us with an investigation of two mystery mammals on Madagascar.

In 1995, D.A. Burney and Ramilisonia interviewed elderly natives about their knowledge of the Kilopilopitsofy and Kidoky. Both of these animals are mentioned in the historical accounts and folklore of Madagascar between the mid-1600s and late 1800s. The testimonies collected by Burney and Ramilisonia enabled them to provide tentative indentifications of these two mystery animals, both of which may still survive today.

The Kilopilopitsofy

"A striking feature of the accounts of this mysterious animal is the consistency of the details. All the accounts we have collected stress that the animal is nocturnal, grunts noisily, and flees to water when disturbed. Likewise, there is general agreement that it is cow-sized, hornless, dark in color, and has a large mouth with big teeth."
These data agree with the old descriptions of the mangarsahoc (1661), the tsy-aomby-aomby (1882), and the Ombyrano (1912). One animal fits all of these accounts: the dwarf hippopotamus (Hippo potamus lemerlie, supposedly extinct for over 1,000 years.

The Kidoky

"This animal's description is decidedly lemur-like. It was compared to the sifaka by all the interviewees who described it, although all insisted that it was not the same animal... It is much larger...perhaps 25 kg. It is usually encountered on the ground and may flee on the ground rather than taking to the trees...Its whooping call is suggestive of an indri."
The Kidoky is probably the giant aboreal lemur (Palaeopropithecus), known only from subfossils 1,000 or more years old.

(Burney, David A., and Ramilisonia; "The Kilopilopitsofy, Kidoky, and Bokyboky: Accounts of Strange Animals from Belo-sur-mer, Madagascar, and the Megafaunal 'Extinction Window'," American Anthropologist, 100:957, 1999.)

Comment. The Bokyboky mentioned in the article's title definitely does survive under the name: Malagsay Narrow-Striped Mongoose. Reference: Walker's Mammals of the World.

[sordes]

The Kilopilopitsofy was undoubtly one of the pygmy hippos of Madagascar, but I have my doubts that the Kidoky was one of the large sloth-like paleopropitheci, perhaps more some kind of Archeolemur.