70 Hippos Travels to Mexico, India as Booming Population Threatens Ecosystem in Columbia

As part of a strategy to manage its booming population, Colombia wants to transport about 70 hippos that currently reside close to the former ranch of Pablo Escobar to two other nations.

Since the drug lord was shot and killed by police in December 1993, Escobar's ranch and the infamous "cocaine hippos" have developed into popular tourist destinations. The hippos survived and multiplied in the nearby rivers and under ideal climatic conditions after his ranch was abandoned.

According to environmental authorities, there are about 130 hippos in the Antioquia province area, and within the next ten years, their population may increase to 400.

Hippos Threaten the Ecosystem

Hippos are among Earth's most aggressive animals, possessing territorial behavior and a maximum weight of three tons. With their strong jaws, they can split a canoe in half. Hippos kill about 500 people every year in Africa alone.

The lack of a natural predator makes the herbivorous mammals a potential threat to biodiversity because their feces alter the river's ecology. They add that and might affect the habitats of nearby animals like manatees.

Hippos Moving to Mexico and India

If everything goes according to plan, the hippos would be shipped to Mexico and India.

According to Lina Marcela de los Ros Morales, the director of animal protection and welfare at Antioquia's environment ministry, the idea to relocate them has been brewing for more than a year. Since they are in a controlled environment inside the ranch, it is intended to concentrate on the hippos that live in the rivers that surround it.

According to the Antioquia Governor's Office, Ecuador, the Philippines, and Botswana have also shown interest in migrating the hippos to their nations.

Humane Move

A spokesman for Cornare, the regional environmental agency in charge of the relocations, David Echeverri Lopez, said that moving large wildlife is doable and that they have prior experience doing so in zoos across the country.

The authorized team will work with Ernesto Zazueta, the president of Mexico's sanctuaries and zoos, who serves as a liaison with other nations and coordinates their rescue efforts, NPR reports.

A truck will transport the hippos to the international airport in Rionegro, which is about 90 miles away, after luring them with food into large iron containers. The animals are then flown to Mexico and India.

Along the nation's western coast and the Arabian Sea, 60 hippos will travel to Gujarat, India's Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Kingdom.

The other ten hippos will be shipped to Mexican zoos and wildlife refuges, including the Ostok in Sinaloa, which is located near the Gulf of California.

Although the animals' natural habitat is in Africa, De los Ros Morales claimed that the relocations would help manage the hippo population and are more humane than the alternative suggestion of eradicating the African hippos as an invasive species in Columbia.

African Hippos in Columbia

The animals have spread far past the Hacienda Napoles ranch boundaries, located along the Magdalena River, about 125 miles from Bogota, and are descended from four animals that were illegally imported from Africa by the late drug kingpin in the 1980s, USA Today (with contributions from AP News) reports.

According to stories from Lit Hub, Escobar obtained control of a sizable Russian cargo plane, which he then loaded with tranquilized illegal wildlife from Africa and had flown back to Columbia.

Escobar smuggled kangaroos, lions, tigers, and four hippos over the years. There were three females and one male he called El Viejo, a common Colombian Mafia moniker denoting "Old Man."