Colombian officials said this week they planned to euthanize several dozen free-roaming “cocaine hippos” living in a central region of the country where they wreak havoc on local villagers, disrupt the ecosystem and threaten native species, years after notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar illegally introduced the animals.
Environment Minister Irene Velez announced a brand new set of measures Monday designed to assist control the population of about 80 hippos after previous attempts failed.
“We must act to scale back the hippopotamus population,” she said.
The South American country is home to some 200 hippos within the central region near the Magdalena River. If control measures should not adopted, the population could increase to as many as 1,000 by 2035, Velez said.
Get each day National news
Get each day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you may never miss the day’s top stories.
“These actions are essential to guard our ecosystems and our native species,” she told journalists, noting that population growth threatens species like river turtles and manatees and causes water pollution.
“We imagine there could also be roughly 80 individuals that could possibly be subject to the measure (of euthanasia),” she continued.
Hippos are seen swimming near the Magdalena River in Doradal, Colombia, on March 29, 2022.
Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The country’s first 4 cocaine hippos were introduced illegally within the late Eighties by Escobar, who ran a non-public zoo on considered one of his ranch properties. Since then, the population has grown despite some intervention efforts from provincial powers to regulate birth rates.
Colombia is the one country outside Africa with a wild hippo population, which descends entirely from these first 4 hippos.
The cocaine hippos escaped Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles ranch after the drug lord was killed by national police in 1993. Since then, they’ve taken up residence throughout the region.
The federal government’s latest initiative, costing $7.2 billion pesos (US$1.98 million), will employ a wide range of methods, similar to confinement and relocation, in one more try and wrangle the animals.
Colombia entered talks months ago with eight governments, including India, Mexico, the Philippines, Ecuador, Peru and South Africa, to debate the possible transfer of some animals to zoos or sanctuaries in those countries, however the vital authorizations haven’t yet been obtained, Velez said.
Resulting from inbreeding, some hippos have genetic defects, which have reduced other countries’ interest in them.
This is just not the primary time Colombian authorities have proposed a scheme to administer the descendants of Escobar’s imported pets.
In 2023, they recommend a plan to capture and transport 70 hippos to India and Mexico after a big population of the African species had proliferated within the rivers and lakes around Escobar’s estate.
Hippos shouldn’t have a natural predator in Colombia and pose a possible threat to biodiversity, as their feces alter river composition and will affect the habitats of manatees and capybaras.
In 2022, Colombia’s government declared the cocaine hippos a toxic invasive species, sparking fears among the many locals that the beloved animals could be culled or sterilized.
— With files from Reuters and Global News staff
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.