4 ms·

There's only 80. Surely it would be trivial to just shoot them?

yndoendo 7y ago
The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (2018) talks about this issue. The public is against shooting them and it cost a poor country over $100,000 to just neuter one hippo. The issue keeps compounding since it takes less than half the time for a hippo to sexually mature in the resource rich land of Colombia versus their natural habbit. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-about-animals-lucy-cooke.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-ab...
- nealabq 7y ago
  HN actually discussed neutering hippos seven years ago in "Why It's Nearly Impossible to Castrate a Hippo": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990822 And there's a post from 5 years ago called Pablo Escobar’s hippos: A growing problem. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949017 And finally there's the infamous plan to raise hippos in Louisiana: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321495 I guess we like our hippos.
  - dmix 7y ago
    interesting! It turns out the problem is the testes can retract up to 16 inches into the body and it's a difficult procedure. In fact it says its hard to tell genders apart because of the way their penis retracts so far. But the study of castrating 10 males work almost perfectly and they showed less aggression... in fact the females were more likely to bully and harass castrated males. So not all is lost but they are still a challenge.
  - arnsholt 7y ago
    A very cool mashup of the Escobar hippos and the Louisiana plan is Sarah Gailey's American Hippo duo of short novels. In extremely brief: cowboys in the wild west, but on hippos on the Mississippi. Lots of fun, both books.
  - refurb 7y ago
    How about implanting something that releases birth control for 1-2 years? It’s actually not that hard to chemically castrate both males and females.
- tasogare 7y ago
  > The public is against shooting them Governments worldwide make hugely unpopular decisions all the time, and often against the interest or will of the majority. It's strange that for something as trivial officials would take precautions.
  - backupcavalry 7y ago
    Well, if we're going along these lines, it also offers the government (officials) no direct benefits to shoot the hippos, so they get to pass the buck off onto the public while saving themselves the trouble.
  - clSTophEjUdRanu 7y ago
    They probably don't care because it's not bothering the public yet. Just wait until there are thousands of hippos and they're a nuisance or people are getting killed. Then the public will be crying about the government doing nothing about this looming problem.
- raducu 7y ago
  That's ridiculous actually. don't they euthanize stray dogs in Colombia?
- major505 7y ago
  I think when it comes to this kind of issues we have to weight of coises. Yes, killing hippos is kind of sad, but also is losing others species because of them. And in the scale, native species should be given priority. You don`t have to shoot all of them. Just allow hunters to kill like 50 of them, and with the money from the licenses, capture other 30 or so and send them to zoos or back to africa in their native enviroment.
- ConsiderCrying 7y ago
  What about tranqulizing them and moving the specimens to an area where they're native? That wouldn't harm them and would solve the problem. Might not even be as costly as neutering them, I suppose.
  - nkrisc 7y ago
    That means moving them to another continent. Who will pay for that?
imgabe 7y ago
I mean yeah. I'm sure there are even people who would pay a lot of money for the opportunity to go hippo hunting.
shadowprofile77 7y ago
Damn do they reproduce fast! The last time I read about the hippos, those keeping count weren't exactly sure but the estimate was around 30 to 40... Now 80?
- bluntfang 7y ago
  there could have just been more discovery, not more reproduction. But I know nothing about hippo reproduction, so my guess is as good as yours!

The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (2018) talks about this issue. The public is against shooting them and it cost a poor country over $100,000 to just neuter one hippo. The issue keeps compounding since it takes less than half the time for a hippo to sexually mature in the resource rich land of Colombia versus their natural habbit. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-about-animals-lucy-cooke.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-ab...

nealabq 7y ago
HN actually discussed neutering hippos seven years ago in "Why It's Nearly Impossible to Castrate a Hippo": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990822 And there's a post from 5 years ago called Pablo Escobar’s hippos: A growing problem. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949017 And finally there's the infamous plan to raise hippos in Louisiana: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11321495 I guess we like our hippos.
- dmix 7y ago
  interesting! It turns out the problem is the testes can retract up to 16 inches into the body and it's a difficult procedure. In fact it says its hard to tell genders apart because of the way their penis retracts so far. But the study of castrating 10 males work almost perfectly and they showed less aggression... in fact the females were more likely to bully and harass castrated males. So not all is lost but they are still a challenge.
- arnsholt 7y ago
  A very cool mashup of the Escobar hippos and the Louisiana plan is Sarah Gailey's American Hippo duo of short novels. In extremely brief: cowboys in the wild west, but on hippos on the Mississippi. Lots of fun, both books.
- refurb 7y ago
  How about implanting something that releases birth control for 1-2 years? It’s actually not that hard to chemically castrate both males and females.
tasogare 7y ago
> The public is against shooting them Governments worldwide make hugely unpopular decisions all the time, and often against the interest or will of the majority. It's strange that for something as trivial officials would take precautions.
- backupcavalry 7y ago
  Well, if we're going along these lines, it also offers the government (officials) no direct benefits to shoot the hippos, so they get to pass the buck off onto the public while saving themselves the trouble.
- clSTophEjUdRanu 7y ago
  They probably don't care because it's not bothering the public yet. Just wait until there are thousands of hippos and they're a nuisance or people are getting killed. Then the public will be crying about the government doing nothing about this looming problem.
raducu 7y ago
That's ridiculous actually. don't they euthanize stray dogs in Colombia?
major505 7y ago
I think when it comes to this kind of issues we have to weight of coises. Yes, killing hippos is kind of sad, but also is losing others species because of them. And in the scale, native species should be given priority. You don`t have to shoot all of them. Just allow hunters to kill like 50 of them, and with the money from the licenses, capture other 30 or so and send them to zoos or back to africa in their native enviroment.
ConsiderCrying 7y ago
What about tranqulizing them and moving the specimens to an area where they're native? That wouldn't harm them and would solve the problem. Might not even be as costly as neutering them, I suppose.
- nkrisc 7y ago
  That means moving them to another continent. Who will pay for that?

imgabe 7y ago

I mean yeah. I'm sure there are even people who would pay a lot of money for the opportunity to go hippo hunting.

shadowprofile77 7y ago

Damn do they reproduce fast! The last time I read about the hippos, those keeping count weren't exactly sure but the estimate was around 30 to 40... Now 80?

bluntfang 7y ago
there could have just been more discovery, not more reproduction. But I know nothing about hippo reproduction, so my guess is as good as yours!