Pablo Escobar’s hippos are a headache for the population and a danger to the environment. Now, they will cost around 3.5 million dollars (around 3.2 million euros) to the Colombian government to be transferred to Mexico and India.
In the 1980s, the Colombian drug lord imported four hippos to form part of his personal zoo. Currently, due to their rapid reproduction, there are more than 130 and they are causing profound changes in the ecosystem of the Magdalena River. According to The Guardian, it is one of the reasons why, in the coming months, 10 hippos will be transferred to the Ostok Sanctuary in Mexico and another 60 for India (still do not know exactly where).
The costs that the transfer will have for the Colombian government were advanced by Ernesto Zazueta, owner of the Ostok Sanctuary, who together with the governor of the Colombian state of Antioquia, a region in the northwest of the country where hippos are found, is planning the operation. The strategy consists of using baits to attract the animals to the compartments, where they will remain confined until they are placed in special boxes that are used for transfers abroad.
Since their escape from captivity, after Escobar’s death in 1993 and the end of his drug cartel, the hippos have been out of control and have found a new home in the Magdalena River; it is estimated, according to The Guardian, that there are 1,400 by 2034. The current attempt to get them out of Colombia is not the first to deal with the problem. In 2009, authorities tried to exterminate the animals, but abandoned that plan when a photograph of a group of hunters with a carcass became public.
Source: Observadora
