Pablo Escobar's hippos

[asakiyume]

We didn't make it to Medellín on this trip to Colombia, but in reading through our guidebook, we discovered that some distance outside of Medellín, drug lord Pablo Escobar had his private ranch, Hacienda Napoles, where he had, among other things, a menagerie of exotic animals, including hippos. After Pablo Escobar's downfall, the other animals were taken to zoos, but the hippos had managed to elude capture... and established themselves in Colombia's Magdalena River (and other watery locations), which they apparently LOVE.




(images from this National Geographic video about the hippos)

There were originally four hippos--and now there are more than 40. Unlike in Africa, there are no predators in Colombia, and there's also no hot, dry season, so the hippos are having babies every year instead of every two years, and they're coming to maturity sooner.

I thought this was a kind of amusing invasive-species story because usually invasive species are ... smaller? Zebra mussels or Japanese beetles or starlings or rabbits. But hippos are the third-largest land mammal (after elephants and rhinoceroses); adults weigh more than a ton. Hippos are not quite a godzilla-level invasive species, but they do represent a challenge for the ecosystem; Colombian zoologists worry about the impact on the local manatee population.

Lucy Cooke, a zoologist and filmmaker, has a great nine-minute video (and you can get a transcript if you don't like watching videos) describing the situation, here. Hippos may look kind of dopey-cute, but they're apparently pretty aggressive. It's made worse by the fact that male hippos have harems (the original four hippos were one male and three females), and they kick out newly mature male hippos to go find mates elsewhere--but of course, there are no other females elsewhere for these poor newly grown hippos. So they're lonely and sexually frustrated.


(image source)

Lucy Cooke said killing the hippos was unpopular among Colombians, so they they decided to try castrating the male hippos. But this is apparently very, very, very hard to do--it's hard to sedate a hippo because of their fat; you don't want the sedative to take effect when they're in the water or they'll drown, and--hippo testicles move about in their bodies when they're under stress, so you've got your sedated hippo, and now you have to find his testicles. .... Okay, they don't move around that much--they don't troop from the groin region up to the shoulders or anything like that--but apparently they can move like eight centimeters or so. One castration cost around $100,000, so that's probably not a solution either. She thinks they'll establish themselves and become a new subspecies eventually. Maybe the manatees and hippos will work something out...


Sources:
Marta Rodriguez Martinez, "Colombia Declares War on Pablo Escobar's Hippos," Euronews, February 2, 2018.

Lucy Cook, "Pablo Escobar's Hippos Are Now Colombia's Problem," Big Think, July 10, 2018.

Wikipedia, hippo entry.

Comments

[sartorias]

I hope they work something out!

[asakiyume]

Me too!

[minoanmiss]

I hope the manatees and hippos reach detente, because my scientific training says "invasive species are a problem" buy my heart says "HIPPOS"

[asakiyume]

Same same!

[rachelmanija]

Same.

Also, you are never too old to learn new things. HIPPOS HAVE MIGRATORY TESTICLES.

[asakiyume]

Yeah!! And while others may have known it, I didn't realize that the hippo's closest mammalian relatives are ... whales. That was cool to me too.

[sovay]

Maybe the manatees and hippos will work something out...

I like this theory best.

[asakiyume]

If only nature would heed our approbation!

books

[threemeninaboat]

Two interesting fiction books on this subject:
River of Teeth: https://publishing.tor.com/riverofteeth-sarahgailey/9780765395221/

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Both very worth reading.

Re: books

[asakiyume]

I was thinking that River of Teeth must have been partially inspired by Escobar's hippos, but how does The House of the Scorpion fit in?

Re: books

[threemeninaboat]

Druglord with wild animal preserve.

Re: books

[asakiyume]

Got it ^_^

Re: books

[ivy]

Hah, I was also going to mention "River of Teeth". Less gumbo in real life, I guess.

Re: books

[asakiyume]

The funny thing was, I had even heard of the premise of River of Teeth, but somehow I didn't put that two and two together until threemeninaboat mentioned it in this context.

[shewhomust]

File under: you couldn't make it up.

[asakiyume]

Definitely. In the National Geographic video that's the source of the first two photos, there's one clip of a hippo marauding in a town at night, and another video a guy talks about being chased by hippos (or maybe that's also in the Nat Geo video; Lucy Cooke mentions it in hers, too).

[cmcmck]

I absolutely adore hippos! :o)

[asakiyume]

They are very charismatic!

[gale_storm]

Oh! My! Holy! Cr@p!

Hippos are dangerous creatures! If a hippo is on shore, do not walk between it and the water. Really! Even if you are as slender as a heron or as tall as a garter snake, do not walk between a hippo and the water. If you do, it will freak out and trample you! Sounds bizarre, I know!

[asakiyume]

Hippopotamuses are big enough to demand no interference from *anyone*.

[gale_storm]

Oh! And a hippo and manatee cross-species wouldn't work, 'cause that would mean a manatopotamus would have to get out of the water sometime!

[asakiyume]

LOL, yes, that would be a problem ;-)

[lilysea]

Thank you for this post! ^_^

[asakiyume]

My pleasure!

[osprey_archer]

I like the DANGER HIPPOS sign. It has to be hard getting people with no hippo experience to take the danger seriously: sure they're huge, but they just look so cute and harmless! Look at those itty bitty ears! You could make a hippo plushie without changing a single detail to make it cuter. (Well, maybe bigger eyes.)

[asakiyume]

That's actually exactly what the zoologists say as one of the impacts: that people in Colombia have no experience with hippos and don't know to avoid them.

[khiemtran]

I'm surprised that the locals are so relaxed about the presence of the hippos. Their reputation is one of quite dangerous animals. I worry about the manatees too.

[asakiyume]

I suppose things are changing all the time, so I suspect now the people who actually live near the river **are** wary of them--probably the sign is for people who are visiting.

And, although I know now about hippos' reputation, I honestly didn't before coming across this story. Since I was ignorant, it's easy for me to imagine other people being ignorant.

Yeah, I worry about the manatees too. I'd like to know more about the two species' pattern of interaction--though they haven't been interacting for all that long. If they don't compete directly for food, and if the places they give birth in are different, then maybe they can share the same space? But if hippos are aggressive about other big guys coming into their space, then maybe things won't work out. And if Colombian zoologists are worried, I guess there's good reason to worry.