Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:59:50 PDT

Besides gold-plated guns and heaps of cash, nothing says drug lord quite like exotic pets. Pablo Escobar, perhaps the biggest kingpin of them all, sure thought so. And lately his ghost has been haunting his countrymen by way of the hippos fleeing from his old home.

It started in 1981, when Escobar smuggled four of the African mammals—one male and three females—and added them to his personal menagerie inside his Hacienda Napoles estate. Neighbors got to visit and see the hippos, which lived among giraffes, elephants, and other exotic animals, as well as the weird, giant concrete dinosaurs. It almost seemed like a great idea, in a give-back-to-the-people Escobar way.

That is, until he got arrested, and the hippos that weren’t taken by zoos continued breeding. Colombia’s climate turned out to suit the animals well. Without the drought that keeps their population in check in Africa, the abandoned hippos mated all year and even matured years earlier than their forbearers. Since Escobar’s death in 1993, it’s been reported that fertile female hippos have been giving birth to one calf every year.

Authorities now estimate 50 to 60 hippos in the region, reports the BBC. Most of them remain in one of Hacienda Nápoles’ man-made lakes. At least a dozen, though, have plodded past the estate’s shoddy fences and have been roaming rural towns near Bogota.

The hippos have been munching on farmers’ crops and crushing the occasional cow. The pudgy herbivores can weigh up to four tons, and they have been known to become aggressive. Many locals, however, don’t realize this. Kids bathe in ponds with the animals; some families even have their own hippo calves at home. Though there have been no reported hippo-related injuries or deaths, experts think that it’s only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt.

Shipping the hippos back to their natural habitat sounds like the easiest solution, but doing so risks the spread of disease across continents. Zoos, if they’re willing, only take in young ones. How about castrating the males? It would be too costly and risky to pull off, as are electric fences. During a test run, one hippo got electrocuted and died. Locals then barbecued and ate it—which one biologist sees as a viable way to control the animals’ population. Most experts, though, warn against consuming hippo meat. One dead hippo has already been discovered to carry leptospirosis, which can lead to meningitis in humans.

Story continues

Carlos Valderrama, a local vet, thinks that eliminating the males is the practical answer. But the government isn’t too keen on the idea because of the controversy that it would surely spark. The bulls can breathe easy, at least for now.

This begs the question: Is eating or culling our way out of the hippo problem—one caused by a drug lord who thought exotic animals would make awesome backyard pets—really be the best idea we can come up with?

Related stories on TakePart:





• Right or Wrong? Australia's Shocking Plan to Kill Sharks

• Should Swan Be on the Dinner Menu?

• Here’s Why Eating Bambi May Be the Best Thing for Deer Habitats

• $23 Million for Rhinos: Howard Buffett’s Mega Gift to Help Stop Poaching

Original article from TakePart