Colombia’s Cocaine Hippos

Wild descendants of the hippo population from Pablo Escobar's animal collection are terrorizing local communities in Colombia.

 

These ‘cocaine hippos’ are all descendants of three females and one male illegally imported in the 1980s by the drug-cartel leader. After he died in 1993, the hippos (Scientific name: Hippopotamus amphibius) escaped from his estate Hacienda Nápoles in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia and established themselves in the Magdalena River. 

 

Without the natural predators or droughts of their native Africa to keep them in check, the herbivores have bred rapidly to form the largest population of the animals outside that continent.

 

According to the journal Nature, “the most thorough census of the animals conducted yet” in Colombia estimates that there are 181–215 of them.

 

Ecologists have been concerned that the highly territorial animals, which can weigh up to 3 tonnes, are altering the composition of Colombia's main river with their excrement, and are outcompeting other species for habitat and resources, with the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) and neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) most under threat.

 

Moreover, these artiodactyl mammals are wreaking havoc amongst the locals. Hippos have attacked fishing communities and invaded a schoolyard, it is claimed. 

 

Colombia has reportedly begun a campaign to sterilize its invasive hippos, showing signs that it is finally taking the threat the animals pose to the country’s biodiversity and local communities seriously.

 

It's good to know that yesterday, according to Reuters, Spain announced it would fork out an additional 3.5 million euros in aid to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which are facing a cash crunch after several countries suspended their funding. [My post "Western Countries Stop Funding UNRWA" published January 29 refers]. 

 

Not just Spain but Belgium too. On February 01, the Belgian deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, whose country provided the UNRWA with $12.6 million in 2022, posted on X: “Belgium will continue to fund UNRWA".

 

UNRWA, which have received a Norwegian nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, have warned they will have to cease operations by the end of February if the funding is significantly pulled.

 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Sunday that the suspended total funds currently amount to “more than $440 million, or around half the agency’s expected funds for 2024”.

The UN agency received some $1.17 billion in total pledges in 2022. FYI, UNRWA's biggest donors are: