03:05Colombia: Govt launches plan to relocate Escobar’s 'cocaine hippos' to Mexico and India
Colombia plans to fly 70 of its 'cocaine hippos' - the descendants of the infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private menagerie of exotic creatures - to new sanctuaries in India and Mexico. This was reported by the governor of Antioquia Department in northwestern Colombia Anibal Gaviria in the beginning of March.
The footage filmed on Wednesday shows massive inhabitants of the 'Hacienda Napoles' in Puerto Triunfo swimming and leisurely resting in the comfortable ambience.
The government’s decision comes in a bid to slow down the booming population of these mammals, who have been uncontrollably reproducing since 1980’s and are now causing havoc on the country’s eco-system.
"We believe that the reproduction of hippos occurs a little faster in our tropics. Here they don't even face predators and they always have food available," explained David Echeverri, a biologist who is studying the reproduction of hippos in alien climates.
According to the Colombian government, the current population of hippos, which began from just one male and three female mammals, now varies from 130 to 160 animals, who have spread out far beyond Escobar’s former ranch.
However, the process of transportation can’t be referred to as easy when the issue comes to multi-ton predators.
"The first step has to do with the entire administrative part, both for animals’ departure and arrival to the receiving country. … Let’s say that after the homologation of health criteria, we have to examine the captured animals so that we guarantee that they are not carriers of any contagious infectious diseases and can’t put the animals at the zoo where they are transferred to at risk," explained Echeverri.
According to the biologist, the hippos are seen by some as an invasive species that can pose a threat to local ecosystems and sometimes even to humans.
"Basically all the management measures that one can propose have both opponents and people who come to support them. The only thing we are looking for here are actions that allow us to address the part of the problem," concluded Echeverri.
The transfer of some of the animals would make easier for the government to control the remaining population of hippos in Colombia, the only country outside Africa to have a wild hippo pack.
03:05Colombia plans to fly 70 of its 'cocaine hippos' - the descendants of the infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private menagerie of exotic creatures - to new sanctuaries in India and Mexico. This was reported by the governor of Antioquia Department in northwestern Colombia Anibal Gaviria in the beginning of March.
The footage filmed on Wednesday shows massive inhabitants of the 'Hacienda Napoles' in Puerto Triunfo swimming and leisurely resting in the comfortable ambience.
The government’s decision comes in a bid to slow down the booming population of these mammals, who have been uncontrollably reproducing since 1980’s and are now causing havoc on the country’s eco-system.
"We believe that the reproduction of hippos occurs a little faster in our tropics. Here they don't even face predators and they always have food available," explained David Echeverri, a biologist who is studying the reproduction of hippos in alien climates.
According to the Colombian government, the current population of hippos, which began from just one male and three female mammals, now varies from 130 to 160 animals, who have spread out far beyond Escobar’s former ranch.
However, the process of transportation can’t be referred to as easy when the issue comes to multi-ton predators.
"The first step has to do with the entire administrative part, both for animals’ departure and arrival to the receiving country. … Let’s say that after the homologation of health criteria, we have to examine the captured animals so that we guarantee that they are not carriers of any contagious infectious diseases and can’t put the animals at the zoo where they are transferred to at risk," explained Echeverri.
According to the biologist, the hippos are seen by some as an invasive species that can pose a threat to local ecosystems and sometimes even to humans.
"Basically all the management measures that one can propose have both opponents and people who come to support them. The only thing we are looking for here are actions that allow us to address the part of the problem," concluded Echeverri.
The transfer of some of the animals would make easier for the government to control the remaining population of hippos in Colombia, the only country outside Africa to have a wild hippo pack.