{"id":4183,"date":"2026-04-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:06:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T13:06:44","slug":"colombia-announces-plan-to-cull-pablo-escobars-feral-hippos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=4183","title":{"rendered":"Colombia announces plan to cull Pablo Escobar’s feral hippos"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Colombian government has authorized a plan<\/a><\/span> to euthanize dozens of hippos descended from animals smuggled into the country by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

There are an estimated 200 hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius<\/em>) scattered throughout Colombia, according to a 2022 census<\/a>, which could exceed 1,000 by 2035. The animals are not native to South America , all are descendants of four hippos (three females, one male) that Escobar brought over illegally for the private zoo at his Hacienda N\u00e1poles estate, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the city of Medell\u00edn.<\/p>\n

The hippos went feral after his death, multiplying and spreading to nearby waterways, eventually reaching the Magdalena, Colombia\u2019s biggest river.<\/p>\n

Irene V\u00e9lez, Colombia\u2019s environment minister, announced on April 13 that the government aims to cull approximately 80 hippos starting in the latter half of 2026, marking the first sanctioned hunt in 40 years<\/a>. The government has budgeted some 7.2 billion pesos ($2 million) for the cull, which also includes provisions for confinement and relocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is out of responsibility to our ecosystems that we must take these actions,\u201d V\u00e9lez said at a press conference as reported by Spanish newspaper El Pa\u00eds<\/em><\/a><\/span>. She noted that previous efforts, such as sterilization, had failed to control the population and that talks with other countries about transferring the hippos to their zoos or sanctuaries hadn\u2019t amounted to anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we are announcing a euthanasia protocol so that environmental authorities can implement it with the support of scientific institutions, because without this action it is impossible to control the growth of the species,\u201d V\u00e9lez said<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In its native sub-Saharan Africa, the hippo is considered vulnerable to extinction<\/a><\/span>. But in the lush environment of Colombia, where resources are abundant and there are no lions and Nile crocodiles \u2014 its few natural predators \u2014 the massive mammal has thrived.<\/p>\n

Each hippo consumes some 70 kilograms (150 pounds) of vegetation daily , the animals trample farmland and displace native wildlife like the river manatee for food and space. And because the Colombian hippo population is highly inbred, it has low genetic diversity.<\/p>\n

The decision to cull the hippos has sparked fierce backlash from animal rights advocates. Andrea Padilla, a national senator, condemned the move as a \u201ccruel\u201d decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cKillings, massacres will never be acceptable solutions,\u201d Padilla wrote on X<\/a><\/span> in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never support the killing of healthy creatures , even less so if, as in this case, they are victims of irresponsibility, negligence, indolence, and state corruption,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Some locals have also come to view the hippos with a \u201cmixture of affection and even protectiveness,\u201d the Smithsonian<\/em> magazine reported<\/a><\/span> in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvaro D\u00edaz, a fisherman who benefitted from hippo tourism, told The Guardian<\/em> in 2023<\/a> that they consider the hippos part of the community. \u201c[T]hey were born here. They\u2019re Colombians too now,\u201d D\u00edaz said.<\/p>\n

Banner image:<\/em><\/strong> A hippo residing at Hacienda N<\/em><\/span>\u00e1<\/em>poles, Pablo Escobar\u2019s former ranch. Image by Alvaro Morales R\u00edos via <\/em><\/span>Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/a><\/span> (<\/em><\/span>CC BY-SA 4.0<\/em><\/a><\/span>). <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Colombian government has authorized a plan to euthanize dozens of hippos descended from animals smuggled into the country by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the 1980s. There are an estimated 200 hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) scattered throughout Colombia, according to a 2022 census, which could exceed 1,000 by 2035. The animals are not native to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-biodiversity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4185,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}