Jakarta –
A hippopotamus left by the late Pablo Escobar was hit by a car. The hippopotamus died instantly.
The hippo’s death was announced by the local environmental authority on Wednesday (12/4/2023). The incident is a signal of the growing danger of the presence of hippos in Colombia. Luckily the driver of the car was not injured in the collision involving the hippo.
According to police, the accident occurred northwest on the highway from Bogota to Medellin. The hippo died immediately after being hit, and his body was removed for analysis.
“This is one of the dangers posed by the presence of hippopotamuses. Many of these species traverse highways with lots of vehicles, which are considered a danger to humans,” said David Echeverri López, a biologist at Cornare, the local environmental authority, as reported by the BBC. Fox News.
“Hippos are unpredictable, at any moment they can attack someone,” he added.
The group of hippos that lived on Hacienda Napoles became a tourist attraction after the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993. Residents of nearby Puerto Triunfo have become accustomed to hippos occasionally roaming freely around town.
Last year, hippos were declared invasive and Colombian environmental officials said their population is now around 130 and could increase to 400 in eight years. Most hippos live freely in rivers and breed without control.
Colombia has proposed transferring at least 70 of these animals to India and Mexico to control their population. Scientists warn that hippo droppings are changing the composition of rivers and could impact the habitats of other species, such as manatees and capybaras.
The hippos inherited from Pablo Escobar were not kept in a closed area, but spread from plantations to rivers near settlements. Currently, there are more than 100 of them.
Escobar brought hippos to Colombia for the first time in 1970. At that time, he illegally imported four hippos. The four hippos were smuggled to Escobar’s private land near Puerto Triunfo, about 100 kilometers east of Medellin, Colombia.
Pablo Escobar’s legacy of hippopotamus populations is thriving, due to the absence of natural predators for them in Colombia. This hippopotamus is also declared as an invasive species that can disturb the ecosystem.
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