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According to scientists, the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s hippos should be slowed down in their spread as soon as possible, even by drastic means.
Experts fear that breeding animals could settle in larger areas of Colombia. The drug lord Escobar, known for his brutality and unscrupulousness, once took four African hippos to his Hacienda Napoles. Meanwhile, between 65 and 80 animals are said to roam the region.
“Our results show the urgent need for Colombian authorities to make critical management decisions to limit population growth and the spread of hippos,” write the researchers in the journal “Biological Conservation.” A massacre is believed to be the only way to control the problem. Animals destroy fields, throw the ecosystem out of balance, and endanger local residents.
Escobar bought the 3,000-acre property in 1979 for more than $ 60 million and made it a control center of his power. At Hacienda Napoles, where terrible crimes such as murder and torture were committed, during the life of the extremely wealthy Medellín cartel boss there were several exotic animals, as well as hippos, tigers and lions, giraffes and elephants. After Escobar’s fall, some animals were stolen, others starved or died of disease.
After Escobar was shot and killed by security forces in 1993, Hacienda Napoles fell into disrepair. The hippos migrated to the surrounding forests and reproduced. Because they sometimes attack people, measures practiced so far, such as neutering and spaying, are not only time-consuming and obviously ineffective, but also dangerous.
“The option to kill her was always on the table,” biologist David Echeverry of the Cornare regional environmental agency told CNN. “However, it is very difficult to imagine that this could happen at this time.” Neighbors would have gotten used to the hippos, which have already become a tourist attraction.
In a way, the so-called cocaine hippos are representative of Escobar’s legacy, which many Colombians would like to forget, which is not so easy, however. The researchers also appear to be aware that their recommendations are difficult to implement: “Because the hippo is a very charismatic species, the approach (to kill) is not without controversy.”
