During the night of last Monday, April 13, the Government of Colombia announced a management plan hippos which includes the euthanasia of almost 80 specimens, due to the uncontrolled reproduction of this invasive exotic species, which was introduced in January 1989 by Pablo Escobar, one of the most famous criminals in history.
“In December of 2022science told us that we must reduce the population of hippos to save our ecosystems,” said the Colombian Minister of the Environment, Irene Velez, to refer to the euthanasia as a control method, after verifying that the attempt to transfer these specimens to other countries It was not successful.
For her part, the director of Forests of the Ministry of Environment, Natalia Ramirez, explained that two methods of euthanasia will be implemented: one physical and another chemicalalthough it all starts with the capture of the hippopotamus, sedation and the subsequent administration of medications approved by experts in the management of these processes.
Given this situation, both Vélez and Ramírez stated that this euthanasia protocol is “responsible and ethical”so it will be applied to almost 80 hippos in the Island of Silencewhere the largest amount of this invasive species is concentrated, and in the Hacienda Napolesa former property of Pablo Escobar in central Colombia.
The whim of Pablo Escobar
In 1989, almost thirty years ago, the Colombian drug trafficker, criminal and politician Pablo Escobar, founder of the Medellin posterit mattered illegally four hippos for his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles. However, after his death at the end of 1993the animals were abandoned and reproduced exponentially.
Due to its environmental impact and danger for the local population in the Magdalena River basin, the Colombian government has authorized the sacrifice of 80 hippos that are part of an invasive species that currently exceeds 200 individuals and, if this species is not controlled, the population could reach up to a thousand in the future. 2034.
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“We know that there are individuals of hippos that are walking in spaces where they live human beings and for us it is essential to protect the life human being,” said the Minister of the Environment, who, for the first time, will allocate resources worth US$2 million to execute this plan from second semester from 2026.
Therefore, what began as a eccentric whim of the drug trafficker, by taking four hippos to Colombia for zoological In particular, three decades later it became a serious environmental and security problem in the center of the nation, where this species reproduces without control until it becomes a danger.
Euthanasia to stop the spread of Escobar’s hippos
According to what was stated by the news agency EFEthe measure of the euthanasia was taken after the failure of other control methods, such as the transfer of hippos to countries like Mexico, Philippines, Peru, India and South Africaafter their governments did not issue the necessary permissions to complete this management.
“Although there have been conversations, no one is interested in receiving our specimens with alleged genetic damage due to the very small number of individuals with which this population was formed,” concluded the Minister of the Environment, who explained that the hippos Colombians have genetic poverty due to the inbreeding.
