What to do with Pablo Escobar’s hippos has been a hot topic for over a year now. In Colombia, where the exotic animals were introduced in the 1980s, a heated debate ensued involving a neighboring country, Ecuador.

“We must act now,” said the environmental portfolio in February 2022 of the significant number of these heavy mammals in the sister country.

In the sister area, “hippos, introduced to Colombia more than 40 years ago, migrated from the Magdalena Medio to the Momposian Depression, revealed a study by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute and National University, cited by the EFE news agency.

In this way, they pose a threat to native species such as the manatee, but also to the country’s strategic ecosystems.

Large number of hippos in Colombia

The so-called “Escobar hippos” arrived in Colombia by air and were transferred to the Hacienda Nápoles, where they have become an invasive and dangerous species, reaching the unusual number of 160, La República reported last week.

There were two female hippos and a male when the drug trafficker took them to Colombia on a private plane to Rionegro airport and transferred them to the treasury, El País reported on March 4.

The number of copies has increased. The aforementioned study, from 2022, placed the number of animals at 133 and emphasized “that their growth rate is higher than that recorded in Africa.”

After Escobar’s death during a police operation in 1993, these mammals were left to fend for themselves and populated the Magdalena Medio region, a hot savanna criss-crossed by rivers, swamps and swamps where food is plentiful, AFP describes.

Hippos have established themselves in the Magdalena River, driving out native animals, devouring plant life, polluting water and endangering human life, the Peruvian environment expanded.

Can hippos descended from the garbage imported by Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar reach Ecuador?

The Fate of “Pablo Escobar’s Hippos”

In 2022, “after a failed sterilization program attempted to control the problem, the government declared hippos an ‘invasive species’, opening the door to hunting.”

More recently, a letter was launched on the discussion table to transfer at least 70 animals to countries such as Ecuador, Mexico and India.

On March 7, Aníbal Gaviria, governor of the department of Antioquia, explained to the French news agency that “the way to catch hippos, how to keep them (…) zone to the airports in Mexico and India”.

The animals travel in “very sturdy crates” and are not sedated for health reasons. The cost of the operation “would be covered by Ernesto Zazueta and by the group accompanying him,” the governor said.

Zazueta is president of the Association of Zoos, Hatcheries and Aquariums of Mexico (Azcarm) and confirmed to the press “that he is taking steps to bring 10 of these hippos to the Ostok Reserve in northern Mexico.”

Ecuador had previously denied permission to import hippos from Colombia.

The environmental authority has NOT issued permits for the introduction of this species, the Ministry of the Environment said in a statement following several press releases announcing a possible transfer of the hippos to Ecuador.

Hippos are also reported for attacks on residents in the neighboring country. In 2021, at least two situations were known.

From this unusual “legacy” of Pablo Escobar, 10 hippos are expected to arrive in Mexico after Easter 2023. Another 60 are considering taking them to India.