A hippo descended from the private menagerie of late drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in a horrific highway crash in Colombia earlier this week. Local officials said on Wednesday, April 12, that the collision took place on a road between Medellin and Bogota. The hippo, which had wandered onto the highway, collided with a vehicle and died on the spot. The occupants of the SUV involved in the collision were unharmed, according to NBC. The remains of the animal were removed from the scene and taken for analysis. The incident has highlighted the dangers posed by Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ in Colombia.
Brought illegally into the country by the drug kingpin in the 1980s, the hippos were part of his private zoo at his ranch near Medellin. When Escobar was killed in a shootout with authorities in 1993, most of the animals of his zoo were relocated. But the hippos proved too difficult to transport and were abandoned. In the absence of natural predators, the numbers increased steadily and the animals spread from Escobar’s estate to the nearby rivers. According to reports, there are about 130 hippos in Colombia. Scientists have warned that the population could jump to 400 in eight years.
While the people living nearby have become accustomed to the animals, the Colombian government has recently declared them to be an invasive species. According to research, the presence of hippos in Colombia poses a threat to the environment, agriculture and people’s safety.
Talking about the hippo’s death in a highway accident, David Echeverri López, a biologist at Cornare, the local environmental authority, said that the aggressive animal posed a significant danger to the locals.
“This (the collision) is one of the dangers that the presence of this species represents. Many of them cross the highway where many vehicles pass, it is also a danger to people,” he said.
The Colombian government had earlier tried to control the population of the animals through sterilizations and contraceptive darts but could not make much headway. The government had recently announced a $3.5 million (Rs 28 crore) plan to relocate 70 hippos to sanctuaries in Mexico, and India. As per reports, 60 hippos will go to India, and the remaining to Mexico.
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