These hippos are descended from those the drug lord illegally imported from Africa in the 1980s.
Located 150 kilometers north of Medellin, Hacienda Napoles was famous for its zoo. Inside, giraffes, antelopes, ostriches… and four hippopotamuses that Pablo Escobar had imported from Africa in the 1980s. had been confiscated by the Colombian state and the pachyderms left to fend for themselves in the abandoned menagerie.
Thirty years later, the “drug hippos” have become a very troublesome attraction for Colombia. Because the four mammals acquired by Pablo Escobar have made babies. They are today at least 130 installed in the rivers of the province of Antioquia, well beyond the Hacienda Napoles. Their number could even reach 400 in eight years.
So much so that the government last year classified them as an invasive species. These hippos, which have no natural predators in the country, indeed represent a threat to biodiversity. Their excrement changes the composition of rivers and could impact the habitat of manatees and capybaras, explains CBS. Not to mention the danger that these imposing mammals represent for humans.
Seventy of them could therefore be sent to sanctuaries and zoos in India and Mexico, capable of receiving and caring for them. In detail, 60 hippos would be sent to Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Kingdom in Gujarat, India. Ten others would go to Mexico. Ecuador, the Philippines and Botswana have also reportedly expressed their willingness to relocate Colombian hippos to their countries.