
Hippos have become an invasive species in Colombia - EndXA
https://www.cnet.com/news/pablo-escobars-hippos-have-become-an-invasive-species-in-colombia/
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mrfusion
I’m going to be downvoted but I think this is actually kind of cool. Just
something that makes the world a little more interesting. Similar to wild
horses living in chincoteaque. Sure the hippos harm some species but they may
be helping other species.

Life is about change. Maybe our goal shouldn’t be to keep ecosystems static.

~~~
bluntfang
>Maybe our goal shouldn’t be to keep ecosystems static.

I'm not sure who's goal this is. Can you elaborate on this? Who says this?

AFAIK, the ecological preservation argument is against human changes, to allow
the ecosystem to evolve on its own, not to keep it static.

"Leave No Trace" if you will.

~~~
Supermancho
> I'm not sure who's goal this is. Can you elaborate on this? Who says this?

You cant stop physics so "static" can be interpreted to mean "mainain" over an
arbitrary amount of time...although I am not sure why you have focused on to
that term.

Leaving aside the troublesome reality of humans being part of the global
ecosystem, any forest/wildlife/etc preserve is implicitly maintaining a
localized ecosystem over multiple human generations.

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RachelF
Hippos are also rather dangerous animals. In Africa, they kill and injure more
people than lions do.

~~~
anbotero
But don’t you think they are cool to see? Now people in Colombia can _enjoy_
from these creatures without leaving their country, even...! Sure, now they
have to deal with them, but now they can invest in containing them what they
would spend for traveling...!

PS: This is just a entrepreneur-minded parody to another post here.

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

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yndoendo
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-
ab...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-about-
animals-lucy-cooke.html)

~~~
nealabq
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
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.

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Jamwinner
Sell hippo tags. Hunters will pay you to solve the problem.

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dustincoates
There was a recent Reply All episode about the feral hog problem in the US[0].
Something that stood out was that hunting in that case actually made things
worse. Hunting feral hogs is really fun to a portion of the population, which
creates an incentive to keep them around to continue hunting them. But they
reproduce too quickly to do this responsibly.

[https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-
all/n8hw3d/149-3050-fera...](https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-
all/n8hw3d/149-3050-feral-hogs)

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DraftDodger67
It might make a lot of sense to airlift all kinds of species out of Africa and
into other environments. With the population of the continent going to 4
billion by 2100, and with the massive levels of poaching and habitat
destruction that will entail, the prospects for native flora and fauna there
are not good.

~~~
idiocratic
I hope you're joking. What's good in removing species from their natural
habitat? This could create a massive imbalances in any ecosystem.

~~~
hoseja
The Bering Land Bridge was an ecological crime and someone ought to go to jail
for it!

~~~
samatman
Given that humans crossed it, resulting in the extinction of the majority of
megafauna in the Americas... yes?

The Clovis people are long gone, and prosecuting their descendants would be
pointless and cruel. So I find myself agreeing with the first half of your
sentence.

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cultofmetatron
I spent my birthday at his zoo in 2018. Fascinating place and I highly
recommend going there for the history. Also you can get stupidly close to
zebras and donkey zebra hybrids that roam the area.

~~~
lowdose
The revenge of Pablo living life at large. I bet he would have a big smile on
his face if someone from the future told him this in 80's.

~~~
elpakal
There’s also a posh night club in Aspen, CO USA with his name on it...

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ptah
sounds like they need more crocodiles to eat the hippos

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cfontes
Nothing eat Hippos, a healthy adult has no predators.

I guess only man and other hippos can kill a hippo.

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leoc
It seems (not an expert) that prides of lions will have a go if they're hungry
enough. The result is a disturbing combination of violence and low-energy
slapstick:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukv0DT08XHg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukv0DT08XHg)
[https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/00000160-27a...](https://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/00000160-27ae-d993-ad70-bfffb59e0000)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=003lqobeivY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=003lqobeivY)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS1rU5SAskU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS1rU5SAskU)

