It would be expensive because you’d have to use bullets made of platinum.
Start a rumor that ground and dried hippo genitals are a human aphrodisiac. The males will vanish in mere weeks.
A few years ago, I saw a show about an alpha male hippo that some scientists decided to sedate and neuter. They took various blood and tissue samples from him while he was sedated, and the vet who castrated him displayed his testicles afterwards. They were as big as her hands!
He was killing other baby hippos, as the alpha male, and this was what they felt was the most humane action.
But only if they’re harvested from the Amazon.
Not to be overly pedantic; the river mentioned in the article is the Rio Magdalena, which is not part of the Amazon basin. But I agree with the premise - make them more valuable dead than alive and they will be gone shortly thereafter.
OTOH, how endangered are wild hippos in Africa? Could there be a need for a distinct, distant population in case of their demise in their homeland?
Hippos are rated as vulnerable with a declining population. This is why I thought a new population might not be terrible. But if they are causing an impact locally, probably worse.
Or rabbits in Australia. They really do breed like rabbits. Australia to this day has a problem with them
http://www.petefalzone.com/handouts/exp-growth-rabbits-australia.pdf
Hippopotamus to hippopotami is incorrect as it is false Latin - hippopotamus is Greek so I guess the plural should be hippoipotamus
Any current graph of the Australian rabbit population will show that due to the introduction of several exotic biological control mechanisms that any seasonal exponential growth in the population is now off a much lower base and fatal negative feedback vectors cut in much more quickly.
As an invasive and adopted species it remains a problem, but nothing like theextent of the first decades of last century.
In English, hippopotamuses or hippopotami so forget your Greek vs Latin. This is English.
Bullets have no effect- they have been shooting some with a revolver now for 65 years and those hippopotamuses are still going string, still wriggling their ears.
That’s… not very impressive, for an animal that size. I mean, have you ever seen an adult ram?
Wow - I misspell a country, and incorrectly refer to someone as having been arrested rather than shot.
If I do say so myself, an impressive number of errors for a very brief OP!
That is from an Amazon description of River of Teeth. The plan was not implemented, the book is an alternate history where it was.
Have hippos been napalmed yet?
No, but they are very hungry hungry