Thirty years ago, when Pablo Escobar was shot dead by the security forces. The whole world then discovers his gigantic personal menagerie. An eccentricity among many others. In his hacienda Napoles, in the department of Antioquia, the boss of the Medellin cartel is home to nearly 200 exotic specimens: pink flamingos, giraffes, zebras, kangaroos and four hippopotamuses from Africa.
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All the animals are sold to zoos, except the pachyderms, which are too big, too heavy, too complicated to move. The authorities abandon them and think that they will eventually die because they are not in their ecosystem.
In 1980, Pablo Escobar imported 4 hippos to Colombia for his personal zoo. Their approximately 80 descendants are now wreaking havoc on the local aquatic ecosystem. Their excrement alters the chemistry of the lakes, destroying algae and bacteria.https://t.co/lqAICxE885 pic.twitter.com/Oq2DDEdoke
– You do not know what ?! (@tuCpakoa) February 3, 2020
Big mistake! The hippos escape from the property, they fall in love with the region, hot and humid. In addition, they have no predators! At first, their presence attracts and amuses tourists, but their population quickly spirals out of control. They are nearly 150 today. Largest population outside of Africa and at this rate one study has estimated that by 2034 there will be 1,400.
The “narco hippos” have become a plague
This poses major problems: they each devour 40 kg of grass a day and their excrement poisons the Magdalena River. They devour all the local fauna that passes under their snout and even attack more and more often fishermen and inhabitants (two attacks noted in 2021). The “narco hippos” have become a real plague, they are now officially classified as an invasive species that no one knows how to get rid of.
Los hipopótamos de Pablo Escobar will be transferred to Mexico and India pic.twitter.com/8f9hq2npyD
— Sepa Mass (@Sepa_mass) March 4, 2023
Two years ago, Colombian authorities launched a massive US-funded sterilization campaign. Not at all effective. By the time you find the cattle, catch them and castrate them, they have already reproduced.
Flight
The last strategy is therefore to move them to avoid shooting them down. Authorities plan to airlift 60 of them to zoos in India. 10 others in Mexico. They give themselves six months to get there. The objective is to lure them – without putting them to sleep – in large custom-made iron crates. According to Aníbal Gaviria, the governor of Antioquia, all they need is a sort of “passport” which will be issued after the operation has been authorized by Cites (Convention sur le commerce international des species of wild fauna and flora threatened with extinction).
Cost of the operation: three and a half million dollars. But tourists can rest assured, some aging copies will be left on the banks of the Magdalena River. And the inhabitants will perhaps find a little of their serenity.