Some of Colombia’s ‘drug lord’ Pablo Escobar’s pet hippos have been ordered to be sent abroad. Local authorities determined that the rapidly increasing population of hippos was threatening the residents.
CNN reported on the 4th (local time) that a male hippo and three female hippos brought by Escobar as pets in the 1980s are breeding rapidly, threatening the fish ecosystem and residents.
These hippos did not originally live on the continent of South America. In the 1980s, Escobar brought a hippopotamus to a private zoo he created on his estate, Hacienda Napoles, about 250 km from Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia.
He is the one who spread cocaine to the United States by developing a transportation route for Escobar’s South American cocaine to the United States. In 1990, Forbes magazine, an American business magazine, estimated Escobar’s fortune at $30 billion (approximately 33 trillion won).
However, Escobar was shot dead in 1993 while being pursued by the Colombian military and police. Elephants, giraffes, and other animals from his private zoo were sold to the zoo, but only hippos were left there. Afterwards, the hippos released to the nearby Magdalena River basin quickly multiplied in an environment without natural enemies, and increased from 4 to 130 to 160 in 40 years.
Locals nicknamed them ‘cocaine hippos’ when their fertility was beyond imagination.
Ecosystem experts have repeatedly warned of the dangers of these hippos.
According to a paper published in the journal Nature, the population of coke hippos is predicted to soar to 1,500 within 20 years. The paper warned that hippopotamus feces could negatively affect water bodies’ oxygen levels, threatening not only fish ecosystems but also residents.
Another journal, published in 2021, suggested the possibility that hippos may damage crops or show aggression towards residents. This is because hippos have strong territorial instincts and are also ferocious in nature. In fact, residents of the area were attacked by hippos in the river.
When the safety of the residents was threatened, local authorities introduced a method of neutralizing and shooting contraceptive arrows to control the population of hippos. But it was too expensive, too dangerous, and ineffective.
Eventually, authorities decided to send 70 hippos to India and Mexico. Antioquia governor Anibal Gaviria said the goal was to send hippos to countries capable of housing them and to control their breeding.
Source: Donga