“They are already not African,” stated Nataly Castelblanco, a Colombian expert in nature conservation, in an interview with El Tiempo. However, local police poured water on this rumor, stating that it would be impossible for traffickers to steal baby hippos "under our noses," adding that rumors of hippos being sold had been around for years without proof.Īnother theory has been proposed: ship them back to Africa or find a new home for them. The sellers are reportedly peddling the captured babies for up to five million Colombian pesos ($1,300). Supposedly, one of the main attractions is to own animals connected to Pablo Escobar and his opulence. Sell or Extradite the HipposĪ recent investigation by the online news site, Vorágine, found that traffickers had allegedly been capturing baby hippos to illegally sell them to collectors. There have been no further attempts to cull them since. Protests quickly followed with activists picketing the Environmental Ministry building in Bogotá. Soldiers pose with the carcass of Pepe the Hippo. #Pablo escobar hippos professional#Two professional hunters brought it down and soldiers posed with its carcass. In 2009, the government allowed the killing of one hippo, named "Pepe," which had escaped the ranch. The one problem with this approach is that local residents seem fiercely opposed to it. SEE ALSO: Coverage of Environmental Crime To prevent this, the team recommends that around 30 hippos should be culled every year. The worst-case scenario could see them reproduce to reach around 1,400 individuals by 2034. Without natural predators such as the lions and crocodiles that feed on them in Africa, as well as a plentiful food supply, the hippos will continue to multiply. Shoot the HipposĪccording to a team of Colombian environmental experts interviewed by the BBC, Escobar's hippos should be culled quickly before the situation is out of control. Here, InSight Crime considers four options for dealing with this issue long-term. At least until May 2019 when one local farmer was chased, mauled and severely injured near Escobar's former estate. Hippos kill more people than any other mammal in Africa but attacks on humans had never really materialized in Colombia. Some have already been spotted over 240 kilometers from Hacienda Nápoles, where Escobar once lived.ĭifferences in their sexual maturity and growth from their African brethren, as well as environmental factors, have seen calls for them to be recognized as their own sub-species.Īnd the problems are accelerating. Left unchecked, they could reach 200 by the end of the decade and spread to a living area of over 13,500 square kilometers. The four curiosities brought by Pablo Escobar in the 1970s to his ranch near Medellín have grown to an extended family of at least 120 individuals. Growing astonishingly fast in number, potentially devastating to the local ecosystem and perhaps lethal to humans, plenty of solutions have been proposed. Colombia's hippos are a well-documented problem.
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