Dozens of feral pachyderms linked to drug kingpin to be killed because of threat to native species and villagers
Colombian officials have authorized a plan to cull dozens of hippos descended from animals brought to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, after the feral beasts displaced native species and threatened local villagers.
The environment minister, Irene Vélez, said the decision was reached because other methods to control their population had been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. Vélez said that up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when the hunting would begin.
“If we don’t do this we will not be able to control the population,” Vélez said. “We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.”
Colombia is the only country outside Africa with a wild hippo population, which descends entirely from four individuals imported by Escobar in the 1980s as the drug lord built a private zoo in Hacienda Nápoles, a gigantic ranch in the Magdalena River valley.
