this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I'm torn... on the one hand... dangerous invasive species... on the other hand...

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just wait for mom. If you are lucky you are just loosing the leg.

They are super agressive (especially when their young are around) and kill more people every year in Africa then lions or other predators. They also have very sharp teeth.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I would have assumed their teeth were dull... you know because of all those marbles?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

They're just so hungry hungry.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

...vicious as well

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

That's going to be one sick foot rest

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah. Both legs, boots and all

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Aww. What a little killing machine.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This is one of those weird instances of flipped roles. Hippos are horrible for the natural environment in Colombia, but the locals actually love them because they bring in tourist dollars. Enough people want to see the hippos that the locals have set up tour companies around it. So the environmentalists want to kill the animals, and the local businesses are trying to protect the animals.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

sounds like they need to join forces and set up hunting businesses.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

They could also capture them and put them in an enclosure. That or spay/neuter them and release back as a compromise. It might be too hard to sedated an animal of that size though.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The meat edible? Hope it doesn't go to waste.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It is, and supposedly tastes like pork.

There had been a plan in the early 1900s to introduce them to the Louisiana swamps to be raised for meat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hippo_bill

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Two hippopotamuses in their natural habitat, which is not Louisiana

That seems pretty snarky for Wikipedia.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

My favorite of the Great Lakes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Water horse ham

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

the leather is incredibly durable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

why? wouldn't you be hungry hungry?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Follow up question, are there any meats that aren't edible?

I've heard that you shouldn't eat the livers of predators due to poisonous amounts of vitamin A that can be built up in them, but that's strictly offal rather than meat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Depends on your definition of edible I suppose. Puffer fish are lethal poisonous if not prepared properly, probably not the only animal like this, and all high level predators have bio-accumulation which renders their bodies generally unhealthy to eat in large quantities.

I was thinking more along the lines of palatable I suppose. Canada Goose is apparently nasty which is a shame considering how numerous they are nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Canada geese are still a protected species so there might not be as many as you think. They may just know that they're safe in our cities and parks and chill there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago
  • In many areas, Canada Goose populations have not reached the carrying capacity of the habitat and there is no biological reason to expect that these populations will stop growing in the short-term
  • In the United States, “resident” Canada Geese have been declared overabundant and as such are currently subject to special take by hunters outside of hunting seasons
  • At the present time the conservation status of Canada Geese is not threatened; populations in all regions are well above objectives; there is no conservation risk to providing permits to eligible people who need them to reduce damage and danger caused by Canada Geese on their property

The status of Canada Geese

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

Better do it before the full power of exponential growth kicks in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Everytime I see that creatures I remember my encounter with one of them at the zoo.
It rotated it's tail like a ventilator and pooped the soggiest crap imaginable. The wall tiles of the indoor enclosure were a complete mess.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Why must they be killed, surely they can be moved. You're gonna be moving them anyway dead or alive.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You obviously didn't make the effort to look at more than the headline.

The article states clearly that colombia tried several other messures to control the hippo population. Neither transfering efforts nor population control were fruitful. But from the 4 hippos in escobars zoo there are now nearly 200 and they expect the population to grow to >1000 until 2035 if they don't get the situation under controll.

Hippos are super heavy and super dangerous and super difficult to move alive. They just hunt you down and kill you for sport. In addition to being an invasive species in colombia, taking important living spaces from local wildlife (that dies in consequence too).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

That's a fuckton of inbred hippos.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

We’re really understating the Hungry Hungry part.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

The thing is they are mostly vegetarian. They don't NEED to eat you, they just enjoy it.