Colombia has a hippo plague and Pablo Escobar is to blame

Cocaine and hippos don’t actually have much in common. Actually. But their paths cross over one story: drug kingpin Pablo Escobar is said to have both – cocaine and hippos. But even though the coca plant is native to Escobar’s native Colombia, Escobar smuggled four African hippos into the country and then onto his estate in the 1980s.

And so begins the story of woe of the Colombians. And the hippos.

The Story of the “Cocaine Hippos”

Escobar was the head of the Medellin Cartel and is arguably the most powerful drug lord of all time. He lived in Colombia in a mansion on a gigantic estate called Hacienda Nápoles. There were amusement parks and a zoo on this site. And animals such as giraffes, tigers, elephants, zebras, flamingos and hippos lived in this zoo.

After Escobar’s death, some animals were given to zoos, others were said to have been stolen, and still others died because no one cared for them. And no one wanted the “cocaine hippos,” as they are called in Colombia. They stayed where they were. Or not: because the fences that had previously held them back had been torn down, although the hippos were still there.

And so the mighty animals finally settled in the nearby river landscape of the Río Magdalena. Originally four hippos have now grown to over a hundred – they reproduce with great zeal. According to a study by the Colombian government, the number of hippos could reach 434 by 2030 and exceed 1,500 by 2050.

And that’s a problem. Because the animals of three tons destroy fields, unbalance the ecosystem and endanger local residents. For example, a hippo was killed in an accident on Tuesday evening and two people were injured.

Accident with an invasive species

A hippo and a car collided in the middle of the Bogota-Medellin highway, just a few miles from Escobar’s estate at the time. The hippo with cocaine died instantly, the vehicle involved was a total loss.

A video on Twitter shows how onlookers flock to the dead animal. “This is one of the dangers inherent in the presence of this species. Many of them cross the highway, which is busy with vehicles, and that is also a danger to people,” says biologist David Echeverri Lopez of the local environmental agency. Hippos are unpredictable, Lopez continued. And: “You can attack a person at any time.”

It wasn’t the first accident involving a hippo. A similar incident occurred in December. Also, a vehicle collided with a hippo. However, the animal would have survived.

In 2021, the Colombian government began sterilizing hippos to stop their uncontrolled reproduction – but without much success. Not all animals could be caught, they were too heavy and sterilization was simply too expensive. In 2022, the animals were officially declared an invasive species. This comes after the Colombian Ministry of the Environment warned that the large amount of urine and feces from the animals is polluting rivers and endangering native manatees and capybaras.

What’s next?

Colombia finally wants to get rid of the animals. The river animals are taken to zoos in Mexico and India. The Ministry of the Environment is currently trying to obtain the appropriate permits in accordance with international agreements on trade in protected species. “This accident highlights the importance of bringing the hippos to Mexico and India,” Antioquia Department Governor Aníbal Gaviria wrote on Twitter.

It is not yet certain when Colombia will be rid of the cocaine hippos. Because before they can leave the country, they must first be arrested – which is why the sterilization campaign has failed.