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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:/
by 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 agointeresting! 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 agoA 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 agoHow about implanting something that releases birth control for 1-2 years? It’s actually not that hard to chemically castrate both males and females.