Colombia: Researchers recommend killing Pablo Escobar's hippos

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Hippopotamus at Pablo Escobar's Hacienda Napoles (archive image)

Photo: Sinikka Tarvainen / dpa

According to scientists, the descendants of Pablo Escobar's hippos should be slowed down in their spread as soon as possible - even with drastic means.

The experts fear that the reproductive animals could settle in larger parts of Colombia.

The drug lord Escobar, notorious for his brutality and unscrupulousness, once brought four African hippos to his Hacienda Nápoles.

In the meantime, between 65 and 80 animals are said to roam the region.

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A hippopotamus runs across a street of the Hacienda Nápoles (archive image)

Photo: Sinikka Tarvainen / dpa

"Our results show the urgent need for the Colombian authorities to make critical management decisions in order to limit population growth and the spread of hippos," the researchers write in the journal "Biological Conservation".

A killing is probably the only measure that can get the problem under control.

The animals destroy fields, throw the ecosystem out of balance and endanger local residents.

Escobar bought the 3,000 acre estate in 1979 for more than $ 60 million and converted it into a control center of his power.

At the Hacienda Nápoles, where terrible crimes such as murder and torture took place, there were a number of exotic animals during the lifetime of the extremely wealthy head of the Medellín cartel - in addition to hippos, tigers and lions, giraffes and elephants.

After Escobar's fall, some animals were stolen, others starved to death or died of disease.

After Escobar was shot dead by security forces in 1993, the Hacienda Nápoles fell into disrepair.

The hippos migrated to the surrounding forests and reproduced.

Because they sometimes attack people, the measures practiced up to now, such as castration and sterilization, are not only time-consuming and obviously ineffective, but also dangerous.

"The option to kill her was always on the table," said biologist David Echeverry of the regional environmental agency Cornare to CNN.

"However, it is very difficult to imagine that this could happen at the moment." The residents would have gotten used to the hippos, which have already become a tourist attraction.

In a way, the so-called cocaine hippos are representative of Escobar's legacy, which many Colombians would like to forget - which is not so easy, however.

The researchers also seem to be aware that their recommendations are difficult to implement: "Because the hippopotamus is a very charismatic species, the approach (of killing) is not free from controversy."

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