Threatening proliferation: Colombia to slaughter some of Pablo Escobar's 200 hippos

They once belonged to the notorious drug baron and are about to be slaughtered for lack of solutions to relocate them.

The line of hippos imported by Pablo Escobar is descended from four African specimens. They were brought from Africa for the drug lord's animal park, nestled in the Hacienda Nápoles estate. When Colombian police stopped Escobar in 1993, the private zoo fell into disrepair. The animals fled to nearby rivers, where they quickly proliferated.

And it's precisely this proliferation that is now posing a problem for the Colombian government, which plans to significantly reduce the population of hippos introduced into the region by the drug trafficker. According to scientists, who aren't shy about voicing their concerns, these specimens represent a threat to the local ecosystem. Species such as freshwater turtles and manatees could become extinct in the area. In addition, there would be a risk to the local population as well as to the condition of the surrounding fields.

Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia's Minister of the Environment, indicated that the authorities had initially planned to cull around eighty hippos, warning that all attempts to relocate the individuals to nature parks or zoos in Mexico, the Philippines or India had failed. According to the Minister, it was essential to take the measure of the threat and act quickly to control the development of the population, not failing to point out that relocation plans were still underway.

In Colombia, the number of living hippos is said to have reached 200, and without control operations, the colony could grow to 1,000 individuals by 2035.

(Romain Sart with Malvina Parker/©The Global Nature 2026/Picture: Birger Strahl via Unsplash)