Colombian officials have made the decision to euthanise some of Pablo Escobar’s herd of ‘cocaine hippos’.
When Escobar was killed by the authorities in 1993, many of the animals in his private zoo were relocated but the hippos were pretty much left to their own devices.
This turned out to be a bit of a daft idea because the cocaine hippos not only survived their abandonment, they actually thrived in Colombia.
Now there’s a herd of hippos confirmed to be at least 166 strong, and there have been fears that their numbers could rise to over a thousand within the next decade.
Pablo Escobar brought four hippos for his private zoo, their descendants have been named an invasive species. Credit: Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Hippos make more hippos, and the more hippos in the herd the more hippos they’ll make until it grows into an exponential problem.
Now it seems as though a decision has been reached on the fate of Escobar’s hippos.
Some hippos will be sterilised and others moved but many experts have been calling for the herd to be culled and that appears to be the plan. Credit: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images
Moving them is expensive (and you have to find someone willing to take them first) while sterilisation is dangerous, which is why some experts have been pointing towards a cull as an option.
Hippo dung and urine is toxic and there are concerns that as the herd grows, the environmental damage the animals would cause will only grow.
Their aggression also makes them dangerous as hippos kill more people annually in their native Africa than any other mammal.
Escobar’s collection started with only four hippos which, years later, has grown into 166, and they live around the Magdalena River.
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