bogota, colombiaAP —
Colombian authorities on Monday approved a plan to cull dozens of hippos roaming freely in the country’s central region, years after notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar first introduced them. Hippos threaten villagers and drive out native species.
Environment Minister Irene Vélez said previous methods of population management, such as castrating some animals or moving them to zoos, were expensive and failed. Vélez said up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. He did not say when the hunt would begin.
“If we don’t do that, we won’t be able to control the population,” Velez said. “We must take this action to protect our ecosystem.”
Colombia is the only country outside Africa where hippos live in the wild. The hippos are descendants of four hippos that Escobar brought to the country in the 1980s when he built a private zoo in Hacienda Napoles. Napoles was a large ranch in the Magdalena River valley, with a private airstrip and a rural residence.
According to a study published by the National University of Colombia, approximately 170 hippos will be roaming freely in the country in 2022.
Hippos have recently been sighted in an area more than 100 kilometers north of the ranch.
Colombian environmental authorities say the mammals pose a threat to villagers who encounter them on farms and rivers. They also compete for food and space with native species such as river manatees.
Despite the difficulties, the hippos have also become a tourist attraction, with residents of the villages surrounding Hacienda Napoles organizing hippo viewing tours and selling hippo-themed souvenirs.
The hippos are one of the main attractions at Napoles Ranch, which was confiscated when the Colombian government seized Escobar’s property. It now functions as a theme park, with floats, water slides, and a zoo housing several other African species.
Colombian animal rights activists have long opposed proposals to kill hippos, saying they deserve to live. They argue that addressing problems through violence sets a bad example for a country that has experienced decades of civil war.
Andrea Padilla, a senator and animal rights activist who helped draft the bill to ban bullfighting in Colombia, described the plan to kill the hippos as a “cruel” decision and accused government officials of trying to take the easy way out.
“Murder and genocide are never acceptable,” Padilla wrote to X. “These are healthy creatures, victims of government agency negligence.”
Over the past 12 years, spanning three presidential administrations, Colombia has attempted to reduce the population by neutering some hippos. However, the scope of this effort was limited by the high costs of trapping and operating on dangerous animals.
Colombian hippos have been thought to be impossible to reintroduce into their natural habitat in Africa because of their limited gene pool and potential for carrying diseases.
