Colombia plans to fly dozens of its 'cocaine hippos' -- the descendents of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar's private menagerie -- to new homes in India and Mexico in a bid to control their booming population, according to the local governor.
Hippos float in the lake at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
The original hippos were part of a collection of exotic animals Escobar had amassed in the 1980s at his ranchabout 250 kilometres from Medellín. After his death in 1993, authorities relocated most of the other animals, but not the hippos -- because they were too difficult to transport. The technical term for this operation is "translocating," governor Aníbal Gaviria explained in an interview with the , as it would involve moving the hippos from one country that was not their native habitat to another that was also not their natural habitat.
Aside from reducing the number of hippos in Colombia, authorities are hoping to learn how to manage the remaining population, which are recognized as a potential tourist attraction. The translocation could be completed by the first half of this year if necessary permits are expedited, especially from the Colombian Agricultural Institute, Gaviria said.Hippos are seen by some as an invasive species that can pose a danger to local ecosystems and sometimes even to humans.
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