Editing Pygmy hippopotamus (section)

== Conservation ==
[[File:Pygmy hippopotamus pair.jpg|thumb|Pair at the [[Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy]]]]
The greatest threat to the remaining pygmy hippopotamus population in the wild is loss of habitat. The forests in which pygmy hippos live have been subject to logging, settling and conversion to agriculture, with little efforts made to make logging sustainable. As forests shrink, the populations become more fragmented, leading to less genetic diversity in the potential mating pool.<ref name="Redlist"/>

Pygmy hippos are among the species [[Environmental issues in Liberia|illegally hunted for food in Liberia]].<ref name="Anne Look">{{cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/370590.html|title=Poaching in Liberia's Forests Threatens Rare Animals|work=[[Voice of America]]|first=Anne|last=Look|date=8 May 2012|access-date=5 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205739/http://www.voanews.com/content/article/370590.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Their meat is said to be of excellent quality, like that of a wild boar; unlike those of the common hippo, the pygmy hippo's teeth have no value.<ref name=Robinson/> The effects of West Africa's civil strife on the pygmy hippopotamus are unknown, but unlikely to be positive.<ref name="Redlist"/> The pygmy hippopotamus can be killed by [[leopard]]s, [[Pythonidae|pythons]] and [[crocodile]]s. How often this occurs is unknown.<ref name="The Hippos"/>

''C. liberiensis'' was identified as one of the top 10 "focal species" in 2007 by the [[EDGE Species|Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered]] (EDGE) project.<ref>{{Cite news | title = Protection for 'weirdest' species | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6263331.stm | date = 2007-01-16 | access-date = 2008-08-23 | work = [[BBC]]}}</ref> Some populations inhabit protected areas, such as the [[Gola West|Gola Forest Reserve]] in Sierra Leone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visitsierraleone.org/Attractions/Nature-and-Wildlife/Gola-Forest-Reserve.html|title=Gola Forest Reserve|author=Administrator|work=Visit Sierra Leone|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100308113317/http://www.visitsierraleone.org/Attractions/Nature-and-Wildlife/Gola-Forest-Reserve.html|archive-date=2010-03-08}}</ref>

[[Basel Zoo]] in Switzerland holds the international [[studbook]] and coordinates the entire captive pygmy hippopotamus population that freely breeds in zoos around the world. Between 1970 and 1991 the population of pygmy hippos born in captivity more than doubled. The survival of the species in zoos is more certain than the survival of the species in the wild.<ref name=Action/><ref name="National Zoo on pygmy hippos">{{Cite web | url = http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AsianElephants/factpygmyhippo.cfm | title = Pygmy Hippo fact sheet | publisher = National Zoological Park | access-date = 2008-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080825231829/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/asianelephants/factpygmyhippo.cfm|archive-date=2008-08-25}}</ref> In captivity, the pygmy hippopotamus lives from 42 to 55 years, longer than in the wild.<ref name="The Hippos">{{Cite book| title = The Hippos | author = Eltringham, S. Keith | isbn=978-0-85661-131-5| year = 1999| publisher = Academic Press| location = London}}</ref> Since 1919, only 41 percent of pygmy hippos born in zoos have been male.<ref name=Distort>{{Cite journal | journal = [[Journal of Mammalogy]] | volume = 83 | pages = 674–681 | year = 2002 | title = Distorted Sex Ratio at Birth in the Captive Pygmy Hippopotamus, Hexaprotodon Liberiensis | author = Zschokke, Samuel | doi = 10.1644/1545-1542(2002)083<0674:DSRABI>2.0.CO;2 | issue = 3| doi-access = free }}</ref>