The descendants of the drug baron’s pets have been causing trouble for Colombia for decades. The difficult and dangerous operation is going to be done on 40 hippos every year.
Colombia has decided to take real measures to reduce the number of hippos that are multiplying recklessly.
Sterilization began last month, and this year the plan is to render 20 hippopotamuses incapable of reproduction. After that, the Colombian government aims to sterilize 40 hippos every year.
Titled the world’s largest harmful alien species, hippos have caused trouble for Colombia since 1993, when their owner, a drug lord Pablo Escobar died.
The four “cocaine hippos” in Escobar’s collection of exotic animals, illegally imported from Africa, were released or released because they were too dangerous and huge for the zoo.
The animals adapted too well to their new life in South America. Today, according to the Colombian government, there are already 169 aggressive hippos in the wild. They are the Minister of the Environment Susana Muhamadin pose a danger to people and cause harm to local ecosystems.
– If decisive measures are not taken, the number of hippos may increase to a thousand individuals by 2035, in the government announcement it is said.
Colombia’s November decision is a significant change from the past. In previous years, only a few individuals have been sterilized.
The slow implementation has mostly been due to practical reasons. Catching, putting to sleep and sterilizing a hippopotamus, which weighs an average of 1,500 kilograms, is difficult, expensive – and dangerous.
– The operation is very dangerous, because the veterinarian has to perform it skillfully and as quickly as possible before the hippo wakes up, says a biologist from the Pontifical Javeriana University German Jimenez For The New York Times.
Now, however, it has been decided to put resources into surgical procedures. Sterilizing one hippopotamus costs 40 million Colombian pesos, or about 9,300 euros. Eight people participate in each operation.
Not all hippos are meant to be sterilized. If the plans to transfer the hippos abroad come to fruition, some of them might get a new life in Mexico, India or the Philippines.
In addition, some of the hippos may be euthanized in what the Colombian government describes as “ethical euthanasia”.
– Our goal is to implement the plan with the fastest possible schedule, so that the adverse effects stop, says Environment Minister Muhamad.
Source: AP