The legacy of Pablo Escobar, the cocaine kingpin who brought terror to Colombia, lives on. Residents in the town near Medellin that Escobar once ruled face a new threat – hungry hippos, descended from those the drug lord once kept in his personal zoo.
Two hippos have been seen wandering near Puerto Triunfo in Antioquia province, in search of food after a drought forced them from lakes and rivers. Children have been warned to keep away.
The hippo population at the former Escobar ranch, Hacienda Napoles, has increased and some have escaped. At the ranch, Escobar, whose cocaine empire stretched across South American and the US before he was shot dead in 1993, kept giraffes, antelope and ostriches. In 2008 his confiscated former estate was transformed into the largest theme park in South America.
While the other animals were re-housed in zoos, the hippos were allowed to remain. The slow-moving Magdalena River provided conditions where they could flourish. Recently they were said to have multiplied to more than 60. Five years ago, authorities shot and killed one on the Escobar estate and the incident caused outrage across the country.
But the Colombian government says the hippos pose a public safety risk and is funding their sterilisation from money seized from drug traffickers.
