Why are hippos in Colombian jungles
In the late 1970s Pablo Escobar, the Medellín Cartel boss, acquired four hippos to join elephants, giraffes, and antelopes at his private zoo on his Western Colombia farm Hacienda Nápoles. When Escobar surrendered in 1991, the government confiscated the property and allowed the animals to roam freely. Over time the hippos multiplied and established a population that has become an invasive species threatening local ecosystems. No one can say for sure how to fix this situation.
During the thirty years that followed, the four hippos—three females and one male—produced more than 130 offspring. This species is not native to South America, and without natural predators it settled along the Magdalena River in central Colombia.
Authorities are now seeking to move about 70 of Pablo Escobar’s famous hippos out of the country while the population continues to disrupt the local ecosystem. The animals are difficult to catch, and initial expectations were that they would die off in an unfamiliar habitat. Instead, the conditions proved perfect for these highly territorial creatures, and after three decades the population has grown to roughly 130 individuals and is regarded as one of the world’s most problematic invasive species.
Ecological damage to local rivers
Government and scientists have debated how to address the hippos for years. Conservationists are concerned about the damage to the Magdalena river basin in Colombia. In a landmark move, the Colombian government declared the hippos an invasive species. In 2009 officials confronted the harsh option of euthanasia, but protests arose and the plan did not move forward. A lawsuit in 2020, filed by Luis Domingo Gómez Maldonado on behalf of the hippos’ defenders, argued against euthanizing them and urged alternatives such as sterilization. Leaders in Colombia agreed on a plan that tried chemical contraception to sterilize part of the main population, but the approach did not prove highly successful.
To date, 13 hippos have been neutered and five were moved to local zoos. Do these numbers constitute success asks David Echeverri of the regional environmental agency Cornare in a statement to the Infobae portal. He notes that capturing and neutering these animals is extremely complex, dangerous, and slow, yet the question remains whether this counts as effective progress. Female hippos can bear a calf every two years, so the population can grow faster than neutered individuals.
In recent years Cornare has added another tactic using GonaCon, a chemical birth control treatment supplied by the United States government. It is delivered with a dart rifle to both males and females. Last year the program targeted 38 hippos, though the agency does not know which individuals received the shots. Following the moves to track them has proven daunting
The hippos were once housed in Escobar’s private zoo on his estate. Now the government is exploring another approach transport to India and Mexico to control expanding populations. The animals would be placed in natural shelters and zoos where they can live without harming ecosystems as invasive species. Transport will be costly. Plans call for cargo planes from the Belarusian company Rada Airlines capable of carrying 20 to 30 hippos per flight. A trip to Mexico could cost about four hundred thousand dollars and a flight to India around nine hundred thousand dollars.
This legacy remains a difficult issue that Colombia has wrestled with for decades and has yet to resolve satisfactorily.
Notes about sources used for this overview are included as attributed statements from CBS News and European Press in reporting this ongoing situation. The information captures a snapshot of the evolving debate and the range of strategies that have been attempted in attempts to restore balance to Colombia’s ecosystems.