Colombia authorises cull of Escobar-descended hippos

Colombia’s environment ministry has authorised the killing of up to 80 feral hippos descended from four animals Pablo Escobar imported in the 1980s, after years of failed attempts to curb their growth. The decision follows repeated reports of the animals spreading far beyond Hacienda Nápoles, the former drug lord’s estate in the Magdalena River valley, and clashing with farmers and river traffic.

According to the Associated Press, Environment Minister Irene Vélez said sterilisation and relocation have proved too expensive and too limited in scale to keep pace with reproduction. Colombia has spent more than a decade trying to capture and neuter individual animals—dangerous work requiring heavy sedation and specialised veterinary teams—while the population continued to expand and disperse. A National University study estimated about 170 hippos roaming in 2022; officials now report sightings more than 100 kilometres from the original ranch.

The episode has become a case study in how one private eccentricity can turn into a permanent public management problem. After Escobar’s death, the state seized his properties and turned Hacienda Nápoles into a tourist complex with pools, water slides and a zoo. The hippos, meanwhile, moved into nearby waterways with no natural predators, competing for habitat and food with native species such as river manatees, and raising the risk of violent encounters with people.

Animal welfare activists have long opposed culling, and the plan is already drawing political resistance. Senator Andrea Padilla, an animal-rights campaigner, called the decision cruel and argued the animals are “victims of negligence” by public authorities, according to the AP report. But transporting the hippos abroad is also constrained: Colombia’s population is genetically narrow, and officials cite disease risks and logistical barriers to returning them to Africa.

The economic incentives pull in the opposite direction. Hippo-spotting tours and souvenir sales have become a small local industry, and the animals are a marquee attraction at the theme park built on confiscated assets. That makes population control politically harder: the costs of ecological damage and public safety are diffuse, while the benefits of keeping the animals are concentrated in specific communities and businesses.

For now, the government is choosing a blunt tool after years of partial measures. Colombia remains the only country outside Africa with a wild hippo population, and the number is still rising.