WI: The Americans Imported the Hippos Into the Mississipi?
- Thread starter Ikny
- Start date
I'd lean more towards them being wiped out at least once in the US. Though if they are that popular a shooting animal then they may be reintroduced. Potentially multiple times. I mean this was the same time period when Wolves, Alligators, and many other top tier predator's were close to extinction in the US. People really did enjoy killing anything that might conceivably move.
Nephi
Banned
That's going to be a really inbred population, how long will it take for that genetic bottleneck to be an issue?
Well I believe it's time someone finally brought up the most important question. Namely how does Hippo taste and what sort of dipping sauce go's best with it.
Sort of like Salmon on the Great Lakes. Not native there they breed a sustained population poorly. So the wild life services keep adding more to keep the sport fishing industry happy. Meanwhile the nonnative lamprey keeps the scarce native species in check.
The Atchafalaya remains a backwater because no way in hell is Henry Shreve and gonna clear 165 miles of logjam from hippo-infested waters.
I don't know about reintroduced. A salmon isn't going to horribly maul a five year old girl who wanders too close to the water. I think it's more likely they're hunted to extinction and that's it.
Deleted member 114175
If hippos are losing habitat in their native range then they're probably long term screwed in North America as well
Introduction of hippos into the South would probably be pretty bad all around in the long-term.
Given that they would be introduced with the intent of establishing sustaining populations, the lack of animals really capable of predating upon hippos (other than people) would likely result in high birth rates and a reasonably successful establishment in the South. Given that the Colombian population originating from Escobar's escapees has grown and spread quite rapidly - which numbered far fewer individuals than a planned introduction would result in, and started from a far smaller origin point - it is reasonable to assume at least a similarly rapid radiation of American hippos would follow.
Past that? Farming hippos is not really going to be commercially viable, so that will be abandoned. Furthermore, people are going to find hippos far harder to hunt successfully, and far more dangerous, than any native game animals. Their utility will rapidly be discredited, and public opinion will be liable to sour alongside that. In spite of this, I don't see attempts to cull the new population as being successful. Hippos are far more cryptic than any fully terrestrial large mammal simply on the basis of being able to submerge for hours at a time, and keep in mind that there will likely be at least a couple decades' worth of population growth in the rural South - where penetration of culling efforts is likely to be minimal at best - before efforts get serious. If anything, the hippos probably expand outward at a decent clip, though to what extent is hard to fully determine.
I don't see hippos becoming a truly horrible agricultural pest, but they will certainly be a nuisance in that regard. Their reputation as highly dangerous animals will grow rapidly with them, as will their reputation as messy, environmentally destructive beasts. Nonetheless, the South has gained a new pest, and one that is unlikely to leave anytime soon.
Given that they would be introduced with the intent of establishing sustaining populations, the lack of animals really capable of predating upon hippos (other than people) would likely result in high birth rates and a reasonably successful establishment in the South. Given that the Colombian population originating from Escobar's escapees has grown and spread quite rapidly - which numbered far fewer individuals than a planned introduction would result in, and started from a far smaller origin point - it is reasonable to assume at least a similarly rapid radiation of American hippos would follow.
Past that? Farming hippos is not really going to be commercially viable, so that will be abandoned. Furthermore, people are going to find hippos far harder to hunt successfully, and far more dangerous, than any native game animals. Their utility will rapidly be discredited, and public opinion will be liable to sour alongside that. In spite of this, I don't see attempts to cull the new population as being successful. Hippos are far more cryptic than any fully terrestrial large mammal simply on the basis of being able to submerge for hours at a time, and keep in mind that there will likely be at least a couple decades' worth of population growth in the rural South - where penetration of culling efforts is likely to be minimal at best - before efforts get serious. If anything, the hippos probably expand outward at a decent clip, though to what extent is hard to fully determine.
I don't see hippos becoming a truly horrible agricultural pest, but they will certainly be a nuisance in that regard. Their reputation as highly dangerous animals will grow rapidly with them, as will their reputation as messy, environmentally destructive beasts. Nonetheless, the South has gained a new pest, and one that is unlikely to leave anytime soon.
Nephi
Banned
You wouldn't want it people have actually died from eating it, they're apparently as dangerous dead as alive.
In the words of author and hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick, “It is my personal opinion that hippo meat is one of the finest of game foods … The taste is mild, less than lamb and more than beef, slightly more marbled than usual venison. It tastes exactly like, well, hippo.”
Redneck Hippo Hunters will be a popular reality show.
Musical history is very different, because Muddy Waters was killed in a hippo attack before British Invasion bands could be influenced by him.
Musical history is very different, because Muddy Waters was killed in a hippo attack before British Invasion bands could be influenced by him.