The natural resources of one of the regions of Colombia are terrorized by hippos from the personal zoo of Pablo Escobar, the famous Colombian drug lord, Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.
At one time, Escobar set up a zoo with exotic animals in his possessions. After the drug lord was destroyed during a special operation, the animals were distributed to the country’s zoos. There was no place for a pair of hippos, and it was decided to release them into the wild.
The couple gave birth and, since they have no natural enemies in this part of the world, the hippos multiplied uncontrollably and began to pose a threat to the ecosystem of the Magdalena River, along the banks of which they settled. They eat grass in huge quantities, pollute the river with waste products. In addition, in the presence of cubs, they become especially aggressive and the local population is afraid to fish in those places where the hippos settled.
In order to prevent hippos from destroying the flora of the floodplain of the Magdalena River, in 2009 it was customary to shoot them, but the inhabitants of the country themselves stood up to protect the animals. Therefore, it was decided to sterilize the animals with a special preparation.
But even this did not help much – hippos manage to grow up and give offspring faster than they are sterilized. Currently, about 130 individuals live in Colombia, more only in their homeland in Africa. Scientists predict that by 2034 their number will reach 1,400 individuals.
An option is being considered with catching animals and transporting them to zoos in other countries. But this method is much more complicated than the previous ones. It is not so easy to catch a hippopotamus, besides, such “special operations” will be very expensive.
