Colombia to cull up to 80 hippos linked to drug lord Pablo Escobar

Introduced by Pablo Escobar successful the 1990s, the hippos are a tourer attraction but a headache for authorities and locals.

Colombia has approved plans to cull dozens of hippos roaming crossed a portion successful the centre of the country.

Environment Minister Irene Velez announced the determination connected Monday, with up to 80 of the invasive taxon to beryllium euthanised aft erstwhile attempts to power the colonisation proved excessively costly oregon ineffective.

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“We person to instrumentality this enactment to sphere our ecosystems,” Velez said, without pinpointing erstwhile the cull would begin.

Colombia is the lone state extracurricular Africa to big the semiaquatic mammal. Hippopotamuses were introduced to the South American state by infamous cause lord Pablo Escobar, who brought successful 4 successful the 1980s to show successful his backstage zoo.

Their fig swelled aft Escobar died the pursuing decade. A 2022 survey estimated that astir 170 present roam freely. They person been spotted up to 60 miles from Escobar’s sprawling erstwhile ranch, Hacienda Napoles successful the Magdalena River basin.

One survey suggested that the hippos breed peculiarly rapidly owed to Colombia’s lush environment.

Authorities antecedently tried sterilisation and capturing and sending the animals to zoos arsenic they sought to dilatory their colonisation growth, but neither attack worked.

They accidental the hippos, which tin measurement implicit 4 tonnes, airs a menace to villagers who brushwood them and that they vie for nutrient against endemic wildlife similar manatees.

Despite the section concerns, the animals person go a tourer attraction. They are a large attraction astatine the Napoles ranch, which is present a tourer destination. Local vendors connection hippo-themed souvenirs and hippo-spotting tours.

Animal payment activists person agelong opposed suggestions of culling the hippos, insisting it would airs a mediocre illustration successful a state that experienced decades of conflict.

When an assertive antheral hippo was killed successful 2009, a photograph of soldiers posing with the animal’s assemblage sparked outrage and halted efforts to rein successful the hippos.

The animals cannot beryllium returned to their earthy situation because, stemming from conscionable 4 hippos, their constricted cistron excavation means they could transportation diseases.