Pablo Escobar's feral hippos face cull in Colombia

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Pablo Escobar's feral hippos face cull in Colombia

Quote

Colombia is to cull some of the 166 hippos descended from a herd owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s.

Environment Minister Susana Muhamad said that 20 would be sterilised, others would be transferred abroad - and "some" would be euthanised.

Experts have for years tried to control the hippo numbers.

Escobar imported the animals for his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. They were left to roam after he was killed in a shootout with police in 1993.

Read More: ➡️ BBC News

 

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[Alchopwn]

My understanding is that Pablo imported the most aggressive hippos he could get.  Killer hippos that were seriously dangerous to even have on a boat in human proximity.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Alchopwn

[Tatetopa]

We had a friend who was a large animal keeper at the Portland Zoo.   She said the rhino whose name was Pete was easygoing and never hostile but the two hippos even after a decade could never be trusted.

[psyche101]

Colombia orders hunting of Pablo Escobar's out-of-hand hippos, after decades of failed eradication e

The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca on Friday local time set a three-month deadline for the Ministry of Environment to issue "a regulation that contemplates measures for the eradication of the species", which is affecting the area's "ecological balance".

In their homeland in Africa, the animals are responsible for more human deaths than almost any other animal but in Colombia, the hippopotamuses have become loved members of the local community and a tourist attraction.

They have also been increasingly posing problems for the local community near Escobar's old ranch in Antioquia state — one that experts worry may soon turn deadly.

[Hankenhunter]

I guess the sterilization of all the bulls didn't go so well. 

[Hankenhunter]

I'm OK with a huge reduction of the herd, with complete sterilization of the rest if feasible. If not, then kill them all. They are an introduced species after all. Trying to base a tourist economy on this is ludicrous, extremely dangerous, and foolhardy.