Colombian Government starts ‘removing’ feral hippopotamuses

13/07/2009 15:25:46

From Carlos Andres Lopez in Colombia.

July 2009. I have been working on finding ways to save around 20 hippos that have been roaming freely in the area of the now deceased drug baron Pablo Escobar's old hacienda. These hippos have been breeding since 1982 and are now moving into adjoining wetlands and watercourses. Wildlife Extra predicted in January 2009 that this would be, sadly, their most likely end.

The Colombian Government has given authorization to Fundación Vida Silvestre Neotropical (A Colombian wildlife charity) to start killing the hippos. They have already killed 3 of them that had moved into the Magdalena River. Fundacion Vida Silvestre, along with the Colombian army, shot the hippos and then sadly posed with them as if they were a trophy.

So if there is anyone out there who needs 19 hippos and who has a few Colombian pesos to spare, please get in touch.

Pablo Escobar, the notorious drugs lord, had so much money that he just didn't know what to do with it. Amongst other things (A bullring, an airstrip, half a dozen immense concrete dinosaurs.), he stocked part of his huge estate with hundreds of exotic animals, including elephants, camels, giraffes, ostriches and zebras. He created a lake for hippos and four were released into the lake.

Escobar was killed by Colombian security forces in 1993 and the ownership of the ranch has passed into government hands. All the exotic animals have long since disappeared, apart from the hippos. The original four founded a herd that now numbers 19 or more, and no one knows what to do with them. The hacienda is not securely fenced and the park management does not have the funds to erect a suitable fence, or to feed the animals.