The government of Colombia said they would sterilize some of the hippos originally brought by Pablo Escobar. Authorities are considering culling some after they were declared an invasive species last year.
In Colombia, an invasive hippopotamus population has been growing uncontrolled, leading the government to a yearly sterilization plan.
According to the Colombian government, 20 of these hippos will be sterilized in 2023, and 40 will be sterilized each year moving forward. However, minister of the Environment, Susana Muhamad, said that this will not be the only strategy moving forward to control the population.
She said Colombia is in talks with Mexico, India and the Philippines to move these animals to a more secure location, and that “ethical euthanasia” will also be an option.
These hippos ended up far away from their indigenous habitat in Africa because of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, who built a private zoo in the 1980s for which he imported these animals.
After his death, the animals spread outside Escobar’s property reproducing rapidly, so that now there is an estimated population of 169 of them in Colombia.
They began showing up in the wild a decade ago around Puerto Triunfo, a 17,000-people town near Magdalena River. Colombia is the only country outside Africa where hippos live in the wild.
Though they have the affection of locals, these hippos, with no natural predators in Colombia, are a danger to crop farmers, bystanders and the surrounding environment.
In February 2022, Colombian authorities declared hippos an invasive species in the country.
