The Plan To Put Hippos in the South – The Science of the South

I would be lying if I didn’t say the possibility of making a trip to Louisiana to eat shrimp etouffee, consume my weight in beignets and chicory coffee, listen to zydeco at Rock ‘n’ Bowl, and see hippos did not sound like the best vacation ever. But alas there are no hippos in the South but almost!

In the early years of the last century, the U.S. Congress considered a bold and ingenious plan that would simultaneously solve two pressing problems — a national meat shortage and a growing ecological crisis. The plan was this: hippopotamus ranching.

Hippos imported from Africa and raised in the bayous of Louisiana, proponents argued, would provide a delicious new source of protein for a meat-hungry nation. In the process, the animals would gobble up the invasive water hyacinth that was killing fish and choking off waterways. It would be an epic win-win. A bill was introduced in Congress, and newspaper editorials extolled the culinary virtues of “lake cow bacon.”