Colombian officials said this week they planned to euthanize several dozen free-roaming “cocaine hippos” living in a central region of the country where they wreak havoc on local villagers, disrupt the ecosystem and threaten native species, years after notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar illegally introduced the animals.
Environment Minister Irene Velez announced a new set of measures Monday designed to help control the population of about 80 hippos after previous attempts failed.
“We must act to reduce the hippopotamus population,” she said.
The South American country is home to some 200 hippos in the central region near the Magdalena River. If control measures are not adopted, the population could increase to as many as 1,000 by 2035, Velez said.
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“These actions are essential to protect our ecosystems and our native species,” she told journalists, noting that population growth threatens species like river turtles and manatees and causes water pollution.
“We believe there may be approximately 80 individuals that could be subject to the measure (of euthanasia),” she continued.
Hippos are seen swimming close to the Magdalena River in Doradal, Colombia, on March 29, 2022.
Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The country’s first four cocaine hippos were introduced illegally in the late 1980s by Escobar, who ran a private zoo on one of his ranch properties. Since then, the population has grown despite some intervention efforts from provincial powers to control birth rates.
Colombia is the only country outside Africa with a wild hippo population, which descends entirely from these first four hippos.
The cocaine hippos escaped Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles ranch after the drug lord was killed by national police in 1993. Since then, they have taken up residence throughout the region.
The government’s new initiative, costing $7.2 billion pesos (US$1.98 million), will employ a variety of methods, such as confinement and relocation, in yet another attempt to wrangle the animals.
Colombia entered talks months ago with eight governments, including India, Mexico, the Philippines, Ecuador, Peru and South Africa, to discuss the possible transfer of some animals to zoos or sanctuaries in those countries, but the necessary authorizations have not yet been obtained, Velez said.
Due to inbreeding, some hippos have genetic defects, which have reduced other countries’ interest in them.
This is not the first time Colombian authorities have proposed a scheme to manage the descendants of Escobar’s imported pets.
In 2023, they put forward a plan to capture and transport 70 hippos to India and Mexico after a large population of the African species had proliferated in the rivers and lakes around Escobar’s estate.
Hippos do not have a natural predator in Colombia and pose a potential threat to biodiversity, as their feces alter river composition and could affect the habitats of manatees and capybaras.
In 2022, Colombia’s government declared the cocaine hippos a toxic invasive species, sparking fears among the locals that the beloved animals would be culled or sterilized.
— With files from Reuters and Global News staff
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