2023-11-03 12:02:36
Sad end for Pablo Escobar’s hippos. Colombia will euthanize some of the 166 animals which descend from a line that belonged to the ex-drug baron and which reproduced without control, the Minister of the Environment announced this Thursday. Along with the sterilization and transfer of individuals to other countries, the assisted death of mammals that proliferate in a local river, the Magdalena, will be one of the three measures taken by the authorities to avoid the damage caused by this invasive species .
Fear of serious accidents
“The first stage of this management plan begins” with “the sterilization phase” of around twenty males by the end of the year, Susana Muhamad declared during a press conference. “A part” will be euthanized, she added, without however providing a precise figure or when the elimination process could begin. Specimens will be sent to Mexico, India and the Philippines, countries willing to receive them.
These nearly two-ton herbivores live freely in the province of Antioquia, in northern Colombia, and form the largest herd of hippos outside the African continent. However, experts say they fear the occurrence of serious accidents. Fishermen were attacked on the river and hippos invaded a schoolyard near the town of Doradal. Biologists warn that they are displacing local wildlife, including the endangered manatee. Livestock breeders, for their part, denounce the damage caused by their nocturnal wanderings. In April, a hippopotamus was fatally struck by a truck.
A thousand hippos by 2035
At the end of the 1980s, Pablo Escobar adorned the zoo of his fantastic hacienda, about a hundred kilometers southeast of Medellin, with a handful of hippos. When he died – he was killed by the police in 1993 – the animals were left to fend for themselves and reproduced uncontrolled in a region crisscrossed by rivers, swamps and marshes. A perfect habitat for this mammal which remains in the water for a large part of the day, before coming out at dusk to graze on the grass.
While researchers from the National University estimate that the thousand specimens could be reached by 2035 if this population is not controlled, animal rights organizations emphasize that sterilization causes suffering for the animal and endangers the lives of veterinarians. David Echeverri, a representative of the organization which will be responsible for the operations, recognizes in this regard the risks of allergic reaction to the anesthesia which could lead to the death of the animal.
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