Conservation plan targets up to 80 hippos descended from drug lord’s exotic menagerie amid rising ecological and safety concerns.
Colombia has approved a controversial plan to kill as many as 80 hippos descended from animals illegally imported by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, in an attempt to control a fast-growing invasive population that scientists warn is damaging local ecosystems.
The environment minister, Irene Vélez, said the decision was taken after alternative measures — including sterilisation programmes and relocation to zoos — proved too costly and ineffective.
“If we do not do this, we will not be able to control the population,” Vélez said, adding that the intervention was necessary to protect fragile ecosystems.
Colombia is the only country outside Africa with a free-ranging hippo population. All individuals are believed to descend from four animals kept at Escobar’s former estate, Hacienda Nápoles, in the Magdalena River valley. According to research from the National University, around 170 hippos were roaming freely in the country as of 2022, with sightings increasingly reported more than 100 kilometres from the original site.
Scientists and officials warn that the animals pose a growing threat to rural communities, where they have been known to enter farmland and rivers, and compete with native species such as manatees for food and habitat. At the same time, the hippos have become an unlikely tourist attraction, with some local communities offering boat tours and selling souvenirs featuring the animals.
Animal welfare campaigners, including senator Andrea Padilla, have condemned the plan as inhumane. “Killings and mass culls will never be acceptable,” she said, accusing the government of choosing an easy but brutal solution to a complex ecological problem.
