Colombia proposes to transfer 70 hippos that live near Pablo Escobar’s former ranch to India and Mexico.

Colombia is proposing to transfer at least 70 hippos that live near Pablo Escobar’s former ranch — descendants of four hippos illegally imported from Africa by the late drug lord in the 1980s — to India and Mexico as part of a plan to control their population.

Hippos, which are territorial and weigh up to 3 tons, have spread far beyond the Hacienda Napoles ranch, located 124 miles from Bogota along the Magdalena River. environmental authorities An estimated 130 hippos live in the Antioquia region, and their population could reach 400 in eight years.

Escobar’s Hacienda Naples – and the hippos – became something of a local landmark after the kingpin was killed by police in 1993. When his ranch was abandoned, the hippos survived and bred in the local rivers and favorable climate conditions.

Hippos in Colombia have no natural predators and are a potential biodiversity problem, scientists warn, as their feces change the composition of rivers and could affect the habitat of manatees and capybaras. Last year, the Colombian government declared them a toxic invasive species.

Plan to take them to India and Mexico They have been forming for more than a year, according to Lina Marcela de los Ríos Morales, director of animal welfare and welfare at the Antioquia Ministry of the Environment.

The hippos were lured with food into large iron containers and transported by truck to the international airport of the city of Rionegro, located 150 kilometers away. From there, they will be sent to India and Mexico, where there are reserves and zoos that can accept and care for the animals.

“It’s possible, we already have experience relocating hippos to zoos across the country,” said David Echeverri Lopez, a spokesman for Cornare, the local conservation authority that will be responsible for the relocation.

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The plan is to send 60 hippos to the Greens’ Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom in Gujarat, India, which De los Rios Morales said will cover container and airlift costs. Another 10 hippos will go to zoos and reserves in Mexico, such as “Ostok”, located in Sinaloa.

“We are working with Ernesto Zazueta, the president of reserves and zoos in Mexico, who maintains links with various countries and is involved in their rescue,” the official said.

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The plan is to focus on the hippos living in the rivers surrounding the Hacienda Napoles ranch rather than those inside the ranch because they are in a controlled environment and do not threaten the local ecosystem.

Relocation would help control the hippo population, and although the animals Native area – Africathis is more humane than the alternative proposal of culling them as an invasive species, De los Rios Morales said.

Ecuador, the Philippines and Botswana have also expressed their willingness to resettle Colombian hippos in their countries, according to the Antioquia Governor’s office.