Drug Lord Pablo Escobar’s Pet Hippos Still Roam His Village After His 1993 Death
Pablo Escobar of Colombia may have been one of the fiercest and richest criminals ever when he died in a gunfight with police in 1993. He was a drug lord in the cocaine trade, having established large mafia-type gangs for distribution and selling the drug, and he lived in a paradise of his own choosing in northern Colombia. Not only did he have a penchant for breaking the law, but he also had another curious fascination. He loved hippos. He was so enthralled with them, in fact, that he purchased and had four flown from a zoo in California in the early 1980s. They lived happily among the waters of his Napoles Estate. When he died, the hippos were self-sustaining and soon multiplied – they are now reportedly a herd of 35, making them the largest group of hippos outside of Africa, according to The Telegraph.
While Hippos are considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, these animals in the village of Doradol seem quite tame as they have made their way out of Escobar’s former mansion property and through the canals of the local area. Some people even feed them, and they are largely nocturnal, grazing in fields at night. They even walk down the street, but most of the town’s residents don’t consider them a nuisance. Diego Alejandro Rojas, 19, of the village says he considers them to be village pets.
“They come from the Napoles Estate along the canal after nightfall. They are like the village pets. I’m more afraid of the snakes than the hippos.”
Because the hippos have no natural predators in Colombia, they have fared exceedingly well. The climate is warm, there is plenty of water, and no threats to them, so they have reproduced at an accelerated rate compared to the indigenous herds in Africa. However, biologists warn, just because they face no dangers, does not mean they are not a danger to the people around them, particularly as the herd grows in size. Biologist David Echeverri Lopez says that they break fences with their incredible strength and defecate everywhere, particularly in water sources.
“They have no predators so they are more at peace than they would be in their natural habitat and they have been reproducing faster. This is a paradise for them. If they get aggressive they pose a risk to Colombian biodiversity. They could displace native fauna such as otters and endangered manatees. It is an invasive species and very resistant to everything. They carry diseases that can kill livestock. They threaten fishing because they pollute the water where they defecate.”
Hippos can live for an average of 60 years, but these may live longer due to their good conditions. Environmental experts have been trying to contain their numbers in a humane way, through castration of the male hippos, but that is very difficult since externally, males and females look the same. Male hippos have internal testicles so to find out if one is male, you need to put it to sleep temporarily and grope around. This is no easy feat to catch a hippo before the enormous create disappears underwater – in fact, despite considerable effort, only four have been successfully castrated.
[Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images]
