PABLO’S PETS

Colombia to Expel 70 ‘Cocaine Hippos’ Descended from Pablo Escobar’s Private Zoo

The hippos have become an invasive species with the potential to harm local ecosystems and agriculture.

How do you transport 70 hippos descended from the private zoo of a drug kingpin to Mexico and India? In hippo-crates, if you’re the Colombian government. Four hippos owned by Pablo Escobar have been getting busy since the 1980s, and the 130 to 160 “cocaine hippos” in Colombia now constitute an invasive species, according to experts. In an attempt to control the hippo population, Colombia will send 70 of them to India and Mexico in massive, purpose-built boxes. The animals cannot be returned to their native Africa because of the pathogens that could be spread in the process, so they’ll be transported to sanctuaries through a process called “translocation” that involves moving animals between two environments that are not their natural habitat. Because of their gargantuan size, the hippos were not relocated along with the other exotic animals kept by Escobar after his death in 1993, and the government says it is only taking this step now because the problem has “got out of control.”