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From Medellín to Sinaloa, the film move of Escobar's 10 hippos

2023-03-31T05:09:31.486Z


Biologists and experts denounce that the Ministry of the Environment has not published a study on what should be done with this invasive species


A hippopotamus on a street in Hacienda Napoles, in December 2017. Sinikka Tarvainen (Getty Images)

The heated debate on Pablo Escobar's hippos lacks a central voice that remains silent: that of the Ministry of the Environment.

While discussing what to do with this invasive species, it is not known what the position of Minister Susana Muhamad is.

While waiting for an official position, Antioquia has launched its plan to transfer 70 of these animals, ten to Mexico and 60 to India.

The first, in principle, will leave in two months for the North American country in a transfer that will be documented by an Argentine production company as part of the

Impossible Loads

program , a series that shows complex operations for the transfer of living beings or merchandise.

The move is a starting point, but it does not fundamentally solve the problem.

Biologists and experts have asked the minister on Twitter to publish the results of the study carried out by the National University and the Alexander Von Humboldt Institute, which was delivered six months ago.

The research addressed the effects of hippos on humans, not only on people's lives, due to the accidents these animals cause, but also on productive lives.

The results of the research would serve to "propose actions for the management, control and eradication of

Hippopotamus amphibius

, through the analysis of the socio-environmental, demographic and ecological dimension of the species".

But so far, it has not been published.

After the insistence of the biologists, this Monday Muhammad responded through his Twitter account: "Precisely based on the results, we are defining the general policy and the budget for this four-year period."

And he added that they expect to announce decisions next month.

Up to now, these have been the only words from the minister regarding a problem that has become an environmental risk due to the reproduction of this invasive species.

According to the latest study published in 2021 in the journal

Biological Conservation

, it is projected that by 2034 the hippo population in Colombia will exceed 1,400 specimens.

The author of this scientific study, Nataly Casteblanco, now believes that there could be many more because according to the latest analysis the reproduction rate is 15% and 48% are pups and juveniles.

Currently it is estimated that there are about 160.

There is no related information on the Ministry's website and the latest publications referring to hippos are from the previous government of Iván Duque.

That is why biologists are waiting for the results of the latest research from Humboldt and the National University to be published.

They kept the hope of also meeting them at the Colombian Congress of Zoology, but they announced that they had to withdraw the summary they were going to present.

EL PAÍS asked the Ministry of the Environment, which was the one who contracted the study, why the presentation will no longer take place, but it has not given an answer.

The cinematographic proposal of Antioquia

While this is happening, in Antioquia they have decided to move forward with the transfer of at least 70 hippos to Mexico and India.

This week, the governor of Antioquia, Aníbal Gaviria, signed an agreement with the Mexican Ernesto Zazueta, president of the Ostok sanctuary to bring the first 10 hippos to Sinaloa, where this animal refuge is located.

“We cannot fail to recognize that the presence and disorderly increase in the future could be a risk to the tranquility of citizens and visitors to that territory.

Because it is an invasive species, it can endanger other native species,” said the governor.

In recent years there have been three human accidents in the Magdalena Medio region.

In one of them, the person received a bite and was also left with psychiatric problems;

in another the victim was a man who wanted to steal a calf to sell it and was attacked by the female;

and in the best known, it was a road accident.

In addition, in September 2017, a hippopotamus walked through the streets of Doradal and the residents recorded it while calling it a pet without noticing that it is the third largest land animal that causes 500 deaths a year in Africa.

The transfer to Mexico would be, in any case, a spectacular operation that will be documented by an Argentine production company that produced the Impossible Loads

program

and, with whose resources, the crates where the hippos must be locked up would be paid for.

The mayor's office of Puerto Triunfo, the municipality that has suffered the most from the increase in these animals, would build more pens to attract the hippos and Cornare, the environmental agency of Antioquia, would capture the animals.

They would then be placed in crates specially built for the hippos, quarantined, and trucked to the Rionegro airport, which serves Medellín, or to the Palanquero base, in a municipality in the Magdalena Medio region.

From there to Ostok.

Mexican Zazueta, who introduced himself as a businessman, said they just want to help reduce the growth rate of hippos.

“Something radical was needed, it didn't make sense to bring one or two hippos, but rather something that helps cut down the population,” he said.

The relocation has also raised concerns in his country.

“There are restless people.

They told me, why do you bring a plague from there to here?

But Ostok is a closed sanctuary, it is not a zoo and it does not face the street, it has containments so that the animals can be there, ”he said.

According to the Government, the entire transfer will take place in two months once the Ministry of the Environment approves what Gaviria called a "passport for hippos."

The regional president was referring to the CITES permit (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

In the protocol act, the Animal Protection Manager, Lina Marcela Ríos, said that the "hippos are not guilty" and that they are committed to this transfer to avoid hunting the animals.

"We dream of this so that sanitary control is the last option considered."

It is also not known if the Ministry of agrees with this local alternative and if it considers other forms of control of the invasive species.

Like the national government, that of Antioquia focuses its narrative on the defense of life.

Therefore, hippos become a huge dilemma.

“Here we are in the quest to save the lives of hippos, but also to protect the lives of people in the Magdalena Medio area.

Two tremendous purposes,” added the president.

The expectation for the course of the hippos weighs more and more.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-31

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