Hippos get all too comfortable in Colombia’s wilds

As the population of hippos in Colombia’s Magdalena River Basin has grown, so has concern about the animals’ ecological impacts on the watershed. (Photo by Germán Jiménez)

Pablo Escobar, the notorious head of the Medellín drug cartel, visited all manner of misfortune on Colombia, most notably corruption and violence. Less well known is Escobar’s curious environmental legacy, which scientists say is becoming a serious problem. The capricious drug baron sought to create a menagerie of sorts at his Hacienda Nápoles, a 3,000-hectare (7,400-acre) estate containing 27 artificial lakes and a landing strip in Antioquia Department, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) east of Medellín. Among the exotic animals he brought to the site—zebras, elephants, kangaroos and many more—were four hippopotamuses he had purchased from a U.S. zoo. After Escobar’s death in 1993, the Colombian government confiscated the estate and donated many of the animals to zoos. But the hippos remained—and multiplied. Some made their way off the estate grounds and took up residence elsewhere in the watershed of the middle section of the... Read more →