Pablo Escobar ’s hippos , once again , arekicking up controversyin Colombia .
In the 1980s , the Colombian cocain kingpin splashed some of his millions on a private zoo at his spread Hacienda Nápoles , include four illegally imported hippopotamuses . When Escobar died in 1993 and his conglomerate melt , much of his property was confiscated by Colombian assurance , but the hippos were left to roam the marshlands of Colombia .
Although aboriginal to Africa , the hippos have made themselves at home around Colombia ’s Magdalena River basin . Recent years have seen conservationists becomeincreasingly worriedabout the ecological implications of the hippos ’ presence , and some say the species have become an " invasive mega - vertebrate " to South America . In a new work reported in the journalBiological Conservation , a squad of scientist count to appraise the risk of this invasive specie and proposed some ideas of how to deal with the rogue animals .
The inclose hippo population has blossom out from 35 individuals in 2012 to between 60 to 80 individuals in 2020 , all related to the original foursome imported by Escobar . As per the unexampled bailiwick , the population has been rise at an one-year rate of 14.5 percent and could accomplish a population size of it of 1,418 by 2039 .
The researcher note that these giant creatures can have a dramatic gist on an ecosystem ’s waterways . Hippos predominately low-down and water in river water , which can significantly increase the pee ’s concentration of phosphate and nitrogen . In crook , this can have aprofound effect on the microbial lifein the rivers , favoring the growth of potentially toxic cyanobacteria .
Hippos can also harbor a reach of zoonotic diseases and parasites that could pose a peril to other species of wildlife . The report notes : “ Some of these diseases or parasite could be potentially channel from introduced hippopotamus to wild and domestic animals and ultimately , humans . ”
On top of this ecological risk of infection , the hippos also pose a risk to local communities . They might have a cuddly epitome , but hippos are super belligerent creatures and are considered one of the deadliest beast in Africa . While the scale of the trouble is n’t cleared , there have been a handful of reports , anecdote , and video clip detailing hippo attacks on human beings in Colombia , the research worker say .
They debate all of these problems will deepen in years to come considering how quickly the hippo universe is growing . To fix the job , they suggest follow out a management strategy that would see the “ descent ” of 30 river horse per twelvemonth , heading towards universe obliteration in 2033.That ’s fundamentally a cultured way of saying the hippos should be killed until the population is eradicated from South America . While the investigator realize this a controversial idea , they argue that other attempts to manage the hippo universe , such as sterilisation , have fallen flavorless .
“ strategy ask to be implemented cursorily for command the expansion effects of this introduced coinage . Our projection indicated that the only course of action that could believably conduce to the extirpation of this alien mintage is to implement a gamy - degree extraction by culling , ” the study close .
“ However , as the hippo is a extremely charismatic coinage , this plan of attack is not innocent of controversy . ”
