Monday, February 24, 2020

Hippos run wild in Colombia

In a bizarro twist, hippopotamuses are running rampant in Colombia of all places.
There are now up to 80 hippos living wild in the area around the Rio Magdalena, south of the city of Medellin, which is messing with the local ecosystem and posing a security risk for tourists and locals alike. Tourists in particular love to photograph and  feed the animals, little realizing just how dangerous they can be (hippos actually kill more people in Africa than crocodiles, lions, leopards, or any other animal species).
These Latino hippos are all descended from 4 animals brought the country by drug lord Pablo Escobar to populate his own personal menagerie. After Escobar's arrest, the menagerie fell into disrepair and, although most of the big cats were taken into other zoos, the hippos were just too big and heavy to move. They were allowed to roam wild and have clearly flourished.
Their numbers are expected to quadruple over the next ten years, and could eventually reach thousands. Surgical and chemical sterilization programs are being considered, but this is a big and ineffectual job with hippos, and it is not expected to be sufficient to reduce their numbers significantly. Hippos seem to be there to stay.

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