"All the Hippos Go Berserk!"

[minoanmiss]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pablo-escobar-abandoned-hippos-wreaking-havoc-colombian-jungle-180984494

Pablo Escobar’s Abandoned Hippos Are Wreaking Havoc in the Colombian Jungle

Comments

[bikergeek]

I can't get the game Hungry Hungry Hippos out of my head now.

Also I'm reminded of Jungle Habitat, a drive-through safari park in West Milford, NJ, not far from where I grew up. It hit financial difficulties and closed in 1976. For about a decade afterward, rumors persisted that the operators of the park had simply released the animals into the wild rather than rehoming them at other zoos. There were multiple reported sightings of exotic, non-native fauna like lions and tigers in the woods of northwestern New Jersey, supposedly as a result of this release of these zoo animals. All of it was bunk, of course.

https://weirdnj.com/stories/abandoned/jungle-habitat/

[minoanmiss]

Heee I heard stories about that.

[bikergeek]

Where do you find lions? Only in New Jersey! Come to Jersey, we've got lions! (Forget Delaware...)

[dissectionist]

I mean, that is the same state that let (tr)Action Park stay open for nearly twenty years, so I don’t feel like this lion story is particularly unbelievable.

[bikergeek]

Maybe. I mean, if they did turn all the animals loose, I'm not sure non-native megafauna would do all that well in such a radically different climate.

[dissectionist]

Oh, I doubt they would have survived. But people being like, “Fuck it, just open the gates and let the animals go, it’ll be fine” - that I can totally believe from the same state that was like, “Fuck it, if they want to ride death coasters that got drawn in the back of a napkin and then built with no real oversight, that’s their business.” 😂

[bikergeek]

Yeah, I can believe that.

[sovay]

(Hippos tend to spend daytime hours in the water and move around land at night, adding to a menacing sense of danger striking in the dark.)

I am reminded of this post I saw last night about hippos, via moon_custafer.

[minoanmiss]

I wonder if how many times I got called a hippo in high school will enable me to be reincarnated as one? This looks more and more fun. However, not as a member of an invasive species.

[sovay]

However, not as a member of an invasive species.

Be an avatar of Taweret; non-invasive; chomp high school jerks in half.

[minoanmiss]

WOOT WOOT

[bikergeek]

Sounds like a good plan.

[conuly]

You know, she's recently published a sequel in which the hippos do not go berserk.

[minoanmiss]

heee

[julian]

I am reminded of the time that the Hanford Nuclear Reactor site (in Washington State) was discovered to have had alligators. The thing that led to my basing an RPG around this is that no carcasses were ever found.

Anyway. Hippos are the best. The end.

[sovay]

I am reminded of the time that the Hanford Nuclear Reactor site (in Washington State) was discovered to have had alligators. The thing that led to my basing an RPG around this is that no carcasses were ever found.

Okay, I knew about the leaching into local vineyards, but I had no idea about the alligators.

[julian]

Yeah! It's ridiculous and it is the only part of the entire thing that makes me snerk.

(The area around the site has recovered pretty damn well, helped along in large part by being a National Monument, but the site itself is still... dire.)

[sovay]

Yeah! It's ridiculous and it is the only part of the entire thing that makes me snerk.

Fair! I hope their descendants thrive glowingly in the Pacific Northwest.

[amaebi]

Thank you! I had known of the hippos and been curious to learn more about them and how they were doing.

[anna_wing]

Just shooting as many of them as they can should keep the problem manageable, surely. Megafauna are a lot easier to track than smaller fry.

I keep the Giant African Snails in my garden in check with a brick.

[lb_lee]

The bass and the birdies make the hippos go to war
How mighty mother nature brings the hippos to the floor!

And we don’t need no humans let those hippos fuckin work
Egyptians worship Tawaret as the hippos go berserk!

[minoanmiss]

*icon dances*

[rachelkg]

I had that sandra boynton book 100% memorized when my kid was little, I can still call up big chunks of it.

[minoanmiss]

bee hee hee

[rmd]

It doesn't look like anyone has dropped Sarah Gailey's name in here and referenced their book 'RIVER OF TEETH', so I feel I must and to note it's a fun read.

[minoanmiss]

!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rmd]

My work here is done for now, I see.

[magid]

I came here to do this! Thank you for getting there first!

[acelightning73]

Hippos are VICIOUS. A hippo can take a full-grown lion into its mouth in one bite. And they expel liquid feces as they walk along, and their tails rotate like propellers to spread the stuff around (marking their territory). The ancient Egyptians feared hippos, and considered them representatives of their god of death.