This month,after years of debate about what to do with the voracious herbivores,Colombian officials announced a plan to sterilise some,possibly euthanize others and relocate some to sanctuaries in other countries. On Friday,an official said that four hippos — two adult females and two juvenile males — had already been surgically sterilised.
“We are in a race against time in terms of permanent environmental and ecosystem impacts,” Susana Muhamad,Colombia’s environmental minister,said in a statement.
Colombian officials describe the hippos as an aggressive and invasive species with no natural predators.
Escobar brought the first four to his lavish estate,Hacienda Nápoles,in the 1980s as part of a wild animal menagerie he used to entertain guests.
After Escobar was killed in a rooftop shootout with security forces in Medellin in 1993,his hippos fended for themselves. They waddled into an artificial pond and reproduced,drawing affection and ire as their numbers multiplied.