Apparently they are difficult to castrate surgically, due to very thick skin and testicles that retract.
But AI tells me:
In October 2021, a pilot project was launched to chemically castrate 24 hippos at Hacienda Nápoles in Colombia using a chemical that makes them infertile. The project was a collaboration between the US and the Colombian government, which had previously sterilized some of the hippos using Gonacon, an immunocontraceptive vaccine that can cause permanent infertility. The chemical castration was intended to curb the herd, which had expanded into the surrounding region after Pablo Escobar’s death and became too difficult to capture and transport. However, some experts say that castration is dangerous and logistically complicated, and that it’s not possible to reach all of the hippos easily.
To play devil’s advocate: South America had its own megafauna, once upon a time. The Hippo’s niche was filled, by giant capybaras or aquatic ground sloths or glyptodont. And then - for once it wasn’t our fault, mostly! - North and South America collided, and the ecosystem was horribly disrupted. Many species went extinct, or were replaced by invaders from North America. Eventually, a new ecosystem formed; one that was radically transformed by clades that had their origin in North America or in Eurasia. And then we showed up and helped to coup de grace the remaining megafauna.
It will take millions of years for new megafauna to evolve in South America. The old ecosystems aren’t coming back. Not the one that predated the American biotic intervhange, not the one that predated humanity’s arrival in the Americas, and not even the one that predated Columbia’s industrialization. They are all gone for good.
With that in mind, how do we assess the ‘health’ of an ecosystem? Biodiversity? Biomass? Resiliency to disaster? I wouldn’t necessarily assume that any or all of these factors are negatively impacted by the presence of hippos (or that it’s a strictly positive or strictly negative situation. For example, hippos could week havoc on vegetation near rivers and the species that take cover in those plants, while their fertilization of the river leads to a boom in aquatic biodiversity, for example).
It is very possible that analysis of the hippos’ impact on the ecosystem would show that they are strictly negative and should be removed, or that while they have some benefits there is a specific and clear drawback that outweighs them all. In those cases, great, let’s eliminate the hippos. But I think the knee jerk response that they don’t naturally belong here and therefore must go is quite shallow and perhaps misleading.
As with climate change, I’m in a position where I really need to rely on experts to assess the situation. If you would have asked me thirty years ago if a handful of hippos running around Colombia would develop into a problem I likely would have said no. It looks like a lot of Colombians at the time didn’t think it would develop into a problem either. To be fair, there are some disagreements even among ecologist. Some of them argue the hippos are good for the Amazon even if their dung might occasionally make the water so toxic it leads to algae growth and kills some fish. But the problem here is that by the time you know whether the hippos are a net good or a negative the damage is done.
It’s been more than thirty years since they were introduced to the Amazon, so I hardly think anyone is making a knee jerk reaction here. But given how unpopular it was to even kill one hippo, culling simply isn’t a politically viable solution. Nor are relocation and sterilization practical options either, so it looks like the hippos are a permanent part of the Amazon now. I imagine the locals will start eating them at some point as some people in Africa do now.
Well, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. What is ‘natural’? Here is one study:
Emphasis mine.
Don’t forget that this is the Amazon. Fish die offs are natural. Every wet season the river floods for miles on either bank. In the dry season, it dries up, and many fish are trapped in tiny pools that shrink faster and faster. If they’re lucky, the pool lasts till the dry season. If they’re unlucky, they end up dry. The whole reason piranha have the reputation that they do is from explorers coming across them in dried up ponds after months of starvation. During the wet season, they like to eat fruits that fall off the flooded trees into the river.
Back in the day, South America had horse sized capybaras and aquatic giant ground sloths:
Sure, but that’s also true of removing the hippos and later finding out that the Amazon basin has been a ticking time bomb since it lost its megafauna.
My argument isn’t that we need to go one way or the other on the hippo situation. It’s that we should give up on the idea that there is some pristine state of nature that we can get back to if only we stop messing with things. We need to decide what it is that we value about ecosystems - for example, biodiversity - and then take active steps to manage and protect whatever it is that we agree is valuable.
I reiterate, those are 170-200 individual beings that don’t think of themselves as invaders or pests. Nor did they ask to be there in the first place. Innocent individual entities that just want to exist, but probably won’t be allowed to, because they might inconvenience some people.
And those same people will then invent disgusting euphemisms for killing these creatures like “controlling populations” to justify and conceal the reality of what they’re doing–killing. There’s a harsher and more descriptive word for it too, but If I use it some anthrocentric pedant or six of them, will jump into this thread to lecture me about how humans can’t murder animals. And they’ll feel righteous about their own sanitizing euphemisms, just like they will about the act, itself.
None of this is relevant. How the hippos view themselves within the broader context of their place in the universe isn’t a concern
I’ll be that pedant. You already mentioned murdering hippos earlier in the thread but I decided to leave it alone. You can’t murder an animal and we all know what culling means.
I invite you guys down here to see what happens to a place when an invasive, didn’t ask to be here, and the bastards don’t really care, can do to a place.
You won’t be so squeamish about eradication when you have to file bankruptcy on your farm, that maybe has been in your family for generations, after feral hogs take over.
You will want to murder(?) one after they kill 6 of your baby calves or possibly your child.
You’ll want them gone after they spread prion disease and pests to innocent wildlife.
Or if you have to hear them fighting and eating each other throughout the night.
Invasive species are not a good thing. I promise.
Anywhere.
(Oh…and I forgot Kudzu. Another winner in the invasive species lottery)
Could you imagine being able to put this on your resume though?
Employer: So, tell me about your last job…
Applicant: I castrated Pablo Escobar’s hippos.
Employer: You’re hired!
Applicant: But I don’t know the first thing about quantum physics!
Employer: Your previous experience indicates an abundance of problem solving skills and admirable tenacity. I have a feeling you’ll figure it out.
It’s relevant to them. It’s relevant to me. And “the broader context of their place in the universe” NOT being a concern for most humans is a manifestation of what’s dark, callous, and ugly about humanity. That kneejerk reaction, that quickness to kill first and ask questions later if ever, is a thing humans should get past, not glory in.
That’s semantically and legally true, sure, but I disagree with the spirit of it.
What kneeejrk reaction are you talking about? They’ve had 30 goddamn years to take care of the hippo problem, the population has only increased, and it will likely continue to increase because sterlization and relocation are unlikely to be enough. Culling isn’t a viable option at this time, so for all intents and purpose we have the answer. South America has a new megafauna as they’re there to say. Hopefully the folks predicting this will be good for the Amazon are correct.
Why on earth did Escobar want hippos? Does anyone know?
Instead of blaming people (all of humanity) for what one dumbass did, maybe think about how you, one generic you, can help.
Hell, there’s probably a group working on this.
As I said above, the default reaction people have when nonhuman animals get in their way, or might conceiviably get in their way, or just exist where humans don’t want them to, the resort to “Kill them! Kill them! KILL!” and the accompanying idea that the animals don’t count and people are allowed to do whatever they want to them and to feel fine about that.
Because hippos are awesome. He had an entire menagere with all sorts of exotic critters.
They’ve been working on it for 30 years and currently sterlization, relocation, and culling are being explored and non of those options are practical. Sterlization is difficult, time consuming, dangerous, and expensive. Relocation was deemed too dangerous back when they only had three hippos to worry about, I can’t imagine it’s gotten safer now that there are 170. Culling is not politically acceptable so that’s not going to happen either. If anyone has some ideas on how to control the hippo population, I’m sure Colombia would be interested.
That wasn’t the case here though. The default reaction was to let the hippos roam free. They’ve got a pilot program for sterlization but it’s not looking promising, they’ve explored relocation but for whatever reason haven’t implemented a plan, and they culled a single hippo and discovered this was an unpalatable solution to many people. I question if the default reaction people have is kill, kill, kill. It wasn’t even my default reaction.
This would seem to mirror the approach of several of my city-based relatives who offer free advice and disapproval regarding animal husbandry and farm management but when other life forms deign to encroach within their environment e.g. moths, flies, cockroaches, spiders, ants, mice and other rodents, birds, other small native animals the speed, volume and indiscretion with which they apply insecticides, herbicides, widely assorted chemicals, poisons and extreme prejudice to maintain their personal pristine abode is remarkable.
Bambi is really cute frolicking around in the field but when he and 3000 of his cousins grow up and run out in the road causing who knows how much, damage, human injury and deaths we have to cull the herds.
They eat many many acres of crops. It has to be curbed.
I was nearly killed by a deer jumping onto the road. I knew better than to swerve, so I hit it and it’s friend. Two at once. I came near to dying on the road and nearly died in a surgery after. Had many surgeries to fix my damage.
The Arkansas Game and Fish has a plan to keep deer in the state. They have spent much time and money reintroducing other species in the state.
Now the bulk of their money goes to the feral hog problem.
It’s sad enough when a native species is left to its own devices because of an invasive species that sucks up all the revenue.
The Whitetail deer is suffering furiously with wasting diseases that they don’t have the funds to study and make an effort to help.
I have no love for herds and herds of deer killing people.
I have less for those pigs.
There has to be a balance. It’s hard enough without introduction of non-native species.
I’m afraid for what is suffering from the hippos being there. Y’all said they are studying it. I hope they come up with a plan before humans and other animals and the local environment is ruined forever.
