Colombia weighs culling Escobar’s hippos as Indian billionaire offers to relocate 80
On sultry afternoons in Doradal, a small town in central Colombia, hippos surface like boulders in a lakeside tableau—an improbable spectacle that has become part of daily life and a draw for tourists. But the animals, descended from four hippos that drug trafficker Pablo Escobar smuggled into his private zoo in the 1980s, now number an estimated 200 and are increasingly seen as an ecological threat.
In mid-April, Colombia’s government announced a plan to control the population, including culling up to 80 animals this year. Scientists argue the measure is overdue. Biologist Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez says the hippos deposit large amounts of waste in lakes and riverbeds, driving changes in water chemistry—altering pH and depleting oxygen—that can collapse aquatic plant life and ripple through the food chain.
"The hippos have a transversal impact on the ecosystem," she says. Many locals see the animals differently. The hippos have become a signature attraction; statues dot nearby Hacienda Nápoles Park, Escobar’s former estate, and residents run hippo safaris and sell souvenirs.
"They are part of our community now," says business owner Tania Galindo, who supports population control carried out "in a peaceful manner that respects their life, and the appreciation we have for them." Authorities first tried to curb the boom with sterilizations—surgical procedures followed by contraceptive injections—but Castelblanco-Martinez says the methods are costly, risky and difficult to scale.
She maintains culling is the most effective option, noting similar interventions used for other invasive species. A high-profile alternative has emerged: Indian billionaire Anant Ambani has offered to relocate 80 hippos to his Vantara wildlife reserve in Gujarat, India.
The proposal has prompted both curiosity and skepticism. Sergio Estrada, a biology professor at Bogotá’s Rosario University, calls the undertaking formidable. Capturing and transporting the animals to the Río Negro airport near Medellín—about 150 kilometers from Doradal—would be challenging, he says, before even considering a long, multi-leg flight.
"Imagine what you would need to do to keep these animals safe and relaxed during this trip?" Estrada says, adding that he also doubts the hippos could and roam freely in that setting in India.
As plans advance, Colombia faces a fraught choice: addressing the environmental damage caused by an invasive population that has thrived without predators, while navigating public attachment to the animals and renewed proposals to move them abroad. For now, the government’s plan calls for culling this year, even as relocation remains on the table as a debated alternative.