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Freetown (AFP) April 14, 2011 Villagers residing around Lake Sonfon in northern Sierra Leone have reported the deaths of at least 10 baby hippos this week, with experts saying illicit gold mining could be to blame. Tribal chief Alimamy Lahai said, "We don't know what went wrong but we started seeing dead hippos at the rate of one or two a day and we reported the matter to conservation officials to investigate." Senior Game Superintendent Keili Bangura in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife told AFP, "We have reports of hippo dying around the lake, which is a conservation area, and we are investigating the cause. "We cannot rule out the matter of climate change affecting the mammals although concern has been raised at the high level of gold mining undertaken illicitly in the area." Momoh Bangura, a retired conservation expert and tribal authority, said "these deaths are possibly due to the uncontrolled and unsupervised gold mining going on which is destroying the flora and fauna. "It has also depleted the number of hippos and caused a huge drop in the level of water in the lake." Lake Sonfon, in the districts of Tonkolili and Koinadugu some 200 miles (125 miles) north of the capital, is also home to rare species of monkeys, baboons and crocodiles.
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