Pablo Escobar's hippos are thriving in Colombia. Species who live near them are not doing so well
few endearing qualities was his love of animals. In the 1980s the drug lord brought perhaps a half-dozen hippos to join the rhinos, giraffes, zebras and camels at his zoo at Hacienda Nápoles, his mansion east of Medellín. After he was killed in 1993, anti-narcotics agents moved the camels and zebras to other zoos . They did not tangle with the big, aggressive rhinos and hippos, which went free.
The rhinos, which are less hardy, quickly died out. The hippos, though, are thriving, in part because big cats and hyenas, their predators in Africa, are absent from Colombia. At least 50 adult hippos wallow happily in the Magdalena river, 18km from Hacienda Nápoles. “We might be dealing with 200 hippos in 20 years,” says David Echeverri, a biologist at the Regional Corporation for the Negro and Nare Rivers .Other species are not faring so well.
The easiest answer would be to deal with the hippos the way Escobar did with people who got in his way. But after hunters, acting on government orders in 2009, shot Pepe, one of Escobar’s original hippos, because he was stomping on crops, animal-rights activists sued the government. A court ruling now prohibits hunting hippos. Zoos don’t want them. Local authorities don’t have the money to sterilise hippos quickly. By the time they neuter one, four or five more are born, says Mr Echeverri.
The last hope is birth control. Scientists are working on it, and say that if no hippo-specific contraceptive is ready by the end of the year they’ll try out one that works on pigs. They expect opposition from animal lovers. The scientists’ response: think of the manatees."How to handle Escobar’s narco-hippos"
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How AT&T, Disney and Comcast are handling the move from pay TV to streamingThe pricing and roll-out strategies of streaming services are linked to how much media companies have to gain, or lose, if consumers start relying on streaming video in lieu of cable TV.
Read more »
NBC staffers harbor doubts about network's leadership over handling of Weinstein, Lauer casesRachel Maddow's extraordinary MSNBC segment on Friday — covering the allegations in Ronan Farrow's 'Catch and Kill' that are roiling NBC News — gave voice to other staffers who have concerns about management.
Read more »
South still supports Trump, but base of disapproval is also steadyNBC News|SurveyMonkey polled voters and residents in 11 states across the South, but the data comes during a particularly interesting time for Mississippi, which is in the middle of a hotly contested governor’s race.
Read more »