Colombia Plans to Euthanize Dozens of ‘Cocaine Hippos,’ Descendants of Animals Brought by Notorious Drug Trafficker Pablo Escobar
If nothing is done to control the invasive creatures, officials estimate the population could grow to 1,000 animals by 2035. So, they aim to cull about 80 individuals later this year
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Colombia is taking aim at its invasive hippopotamus population. This week, the government announced plans to euthanize dozens of the hulking animals, which are causing ecological and safety issues in the South American country.
“It is out of responsibility to our ecosystems that we must take these actions,” said Irene Vélez, Colombia’s environment minister, at a press conference on April 13, as reported by El País’ Lucas Reynoso.
Colombia is home to nearly 200 hippos, which are the descendants of four animals brought to the country illegally by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar in the early 1980s. Escobar housed the hippos—along with rhinoceroses, elephants and other smuggled creatures—at Hacienda Nápoles, his estate and private zoo located roughly 90 miles from Medellín.
The three females and one male began reproducing and, with no natural predators or droughts to keep the population in check, the species thrived in Colombia. After Escobar was shot and killed in 1993, authorities seized Hacienda Nápoles and transferred the animals to nearby zoos—except for the hippos.
“It was logistically difficult to move them around, so the authorities just left them there, probably thinking the animals would die,” Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, a Colombian conservation biologist at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Mexico, told BBC News’ Fernando Duarte in 2021.
Did you know? The hippos of Africa
Outside of Colombia, hippos live throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the population stable but vulnerable. The biggest threats to the animals’ survival are habitat loss due to agricultural expansion, climate change, poaching and human-wildlife conflict.
But the hippos did not die. They began spreading to neighboring regions—and causing problems. Today, the semiaquatic mammals continue to trample farmland, attack cattle and menace villagers. They also compete with native species like river turtles and manatees, and they contaminate lakes and rivers with their droppings. They eat massive amounts of vegetation—up to around 150 pounds per day—and their large, heavy bodies disrupt the soil.
Additionally, the isolated Colombian hippos have resorted to inbreeding, which appears to have caused “visible genetic damage in some individuals,” Vélez told reporters, per the London Times’ Stephen Gibbs.
In recent years, government leaders have been trying to figure out how best to handle the invasive creatures, with some estimates suggesting their population could reach 1,000 animals by 2035. Authorities briefly tried culling the animals in 2009, but stopped after a graphic photo showing the corpse of a male named Pepe caused national outrage. They’ve also piloted non-lethal approaches, including surgical sterilization and injected contraceptives, but those efforts have proven expensive, dangerous and largely unsuccessful.
“Castration can slow population growth down a bit, but it’s not a solution,” Jan Pluháček, a biologist who co-chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s hippo specialist group, told Smithsonian magazine’s Joshua Hammer in 2024.
Government leaders also tried to transfer some of the hippos to other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, Ecuador and India. But while several zoos and sanctuaries initially expressed interest in the animals, their governments have so far not approved the necessary permits, officials said this week.
“The administrative silence tells us there is no interest in receiving them,” Vélez said during the press conference, per El País.
Now, officials say they have no choice but to euthanize some of the animals. They expect to kill an initial 80 individuals during the second half of this year, according to Reuters. The government has budgeted $1.98 million for the plan, which also includes confinement and relocation.
Animal welfare advocates oppose the strategy, which they consider cruel. “Killings and massacres will never be acceptable,” Andrea Padilla, a Colombian senator, posted on social media, per a translation by the Associated Press’ Manuel Rueda.
Many residents of Colombia, meanwhile, feel “a mixture of affection and even protectiveness” toward the hippos, as Hammer wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2024. Some also see the hippos as “a potential economic lifeline,” as the animals draw in tourists.
In 2007, the regional government worked with a private company to reopen Hacienda Nápoles as a zoo and safari park, and it remains a popular tourist attraction today. Residents have also launched successful businesses around the hippos, including hotels and tours.
“We don’t want them to be sterilized or killed,” Álvaro Díaz, a fisher who charges tourists to see the animals, told the Guardian’s Luke Naylor in 2023. “We’ve learnt how to cohabit with the hippopotamus and can read their body language, so we know when they’re angry and want to be left alone. And besides, they were born here. They’re Colombians too now.”
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