The late kingpin's animals have roamed free since the early 1990s, but their tenure could soon come to an end.
  • dogslayeggs@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      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.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.winEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        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.

        • sulgoth@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          2 months ago

          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.

          • Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.winEnglish
            2·
            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

  • hakunawazo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    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.

  • Fades@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

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

    • norimee@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      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).