Because they feed on land but excrete their waste in water, they funnel nutrients from terrestrial to aquatic environments.
The animals are foreigners, and in their native habitats they can have dramatic impacts on the landscape. One juvenile hippo was successfully moved to a Colombian zoo in September 2018, but it cost 15 million pesos (about $4,500 USD).įor scientists and conservationists, the ultimate question is how these hippos impact the environment. But the animals weigh thousands of pounds and aren’t exactly fond of human handling, so relocating or castrating them is both dangerous, difficult, and expensive. Instead, the government has been investigating ways to sterilize the creatures, or to move them out of the wild into captive facilities, Echeverri says. They also pose a danger to local residents since they can be territorial and aggressive, though no serious injuries or deaths have occurred as yet.Īfter one hippo was killed in 2009, there was a quick public outcry, quashing any plans to cull them. If allowed to remain unchecked, they will displace endemic animals like otters and manatees, he says. David Echeverri, a researcher with the Colombian government’s environmental agency Cornare, which is overseeing management of the animals, says he has no doubt they act like an invasive species. The hippos present quite a problem for the government. “Within a couple of decades, there could be thousands of them.” Given that there were four in 1993, the population appears to be growing exponentially. That’s at least a couple dozen higher than estimates just two years ago. Spread over a growing area, nobody knows exactly how many there are-but estimates indicate there may be a total population between 80 and 100, says Jonathan Shurin, an ecologist with University of California San Diego who studies the animals. The hippos have escaped Escobar’s former ranch and moved into Colombia’s main river, the Magdelena. The first results of this experiment are trickling in and much like the large animals, they’re muddying the waters.ĭRUG LORD PABLO ESCOBAR’S HIPPOS ARE THRIVING Known unknowns When the hippos were left behind, it accidentally kicked off a rewilding experiment that’s now been running for more than 25 years.
Indeed, the hippos could fill in for species that humans pushed to extinction thousands of years ago-an idea known as rewilding. Without direct evidence that the animals are doing harm, some ecologists argue that there’s no reason to cull or relocate them.
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Now, there are dozens and dozens of them.įor over a decade the Colombian government has been pondering how to best curb the growing population, a strategy largely supported by conservation experts. Most of the animals were shipped away, but the four hippopotamuses-of which Escobar was especially fond-were left to fend for themselves in a pond. When the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, the Colombian government took control of his luxurious estate in northwestern Colombia, including his personal zoo.
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