A hippopotamus descendant belonging to drug lord Pablo Escobar has been killed in a traffic accident in Colombia. The animal was hit by a car on the highway between Medellín and the capital Bogotá, the Caracol television station reported yesterday. Two people in the vehicle were slightly injured. “It’s one of the dangers that the presence of this species poses,” said David Echeverry of Conare, a national environmental organization.
The drug lord Escobar once brought four African hippos to his Hacienda Nápoles, recently an estimated 65 to 80 animals roamed the region. They destroy fields, throw ecosystems off balance and endanger local residents. Experts fear that the reproductive animals will settle in larger parts of Colombia.
The hippos are now to be taken to zoos in Mexico and India. The Ministry of the Environment is currently trying to obtain the appropriate permits in accordance with international agreements on the trade in protected species. “This accident makes it clear how important it is to bring the hippos to Mexico and India,” Antioquia Department Governor Aníbal Gaviria wrote on Twitter.
