from Hacker News

Pablo Escobar’s hippos: A growing problem (2014)

by MorningInfidel on 1/26/15, 7:31 PM with 11 comments

• by syllogism on 1/27/15, 4:57 AM

  Reading this as an Australian, where managing invasive species is a multi-million dollar problem, this is just...extraordinary.

  > "It's just like this crazy wildlife experiment that we're left with," says San Diego University ecologist Rebecca Lewison. "Gosh! I hope this goes well."

  You...hope this goes well? How about you shoot them all, while there's still a countable number of them? It's not like there's a conservation question here. There's almost no genetic diversity in the herd, and hippos aren't threatened in Africa.

• by stevendaniels on 1/27/15, 12:58 AM

  Reminds me of another Hippo story, the U.S. Hippo Bill that was proposed to farm Hippos. http://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/

• by jessaustin on 1/27/15, 2:29 AM

  This points to the forms that truly effective terrorism will take in future. Why bomb a few places in your target country, when instead you could just plant a few hundred genetically-engineered Tyrannosaurus eggs? Mayhem for years! Way to make your mark Pablo!

• by MorningInfidel on 1/26/15, 7:31 PM

  Thought this would be an interesting thought experiment for engineering the best solution to the problem. I guess since Colombia isn't that rich it would have to be feasible economically, too.

• by CmonDev on 1/27/15, 10:15 AM

  He put a ding in the universe.

• by eip on 1/26/15, 8:38 PM

  Two words: Hippo Bacon