There is a row sparked by the cocaine hippos

Hippo relocations: Where are they coming from? Why do they exist, how do they need to be eradicated, and where to send them?

Researchers say that the hippos don’t belong in Colombia — they are native to sub-Saharan Africa. The population of hippos will need to be reduced by 30 per year to reach zero by the year 2033 according to Simulations ran by Castelblanco. The modelling of various management scenarios states that no other course of action, such as castration, would eradicate them.

The University of the North in Barranquilla, for example, has a vertebrate palaeontologist named Giuseppe and he says it is a bit strange. “This is just a taste of what may come.”

The worry now is that, instead of basing decisions on evidence and expertise in conservation, the government is listening to popular opinion, says Restrepo Calle. Nature did not get a response from Muhamad or representatives of the environment ministry.

The question is whether environmental authorities can act quickly to draft a management plan that is ethical and effective. Should they sit on the issue for too long, Castelblanco Martínez warns, rural communities that are most affected by the hippos might take matters into their own hands.

The plan is to send 60 hippos to the Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Kingdom in Gujarat, India, which De los Ríos Morales said would cover the cost of the containers and airlift. There are at least 10 other hippos that will be going to zoos and sanctuaries in Mexico.

The hippos would be loaded onto a truck and taken to the international airport in the city of Rionegro, 150 kilometers away. They would be flown to India and Mexico, where there are sanctuaries and zoos that can take care of the animals.

Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles — and the hippos — have become a sort of local tourist attraction in the years since the kingpin was killed by police in 1993. His ranch was abandoned and his hippos reproduced in local rivers.

The plan to take them to India and Mexico has been forming for more than a year, said Lina Marcela de los Ríos Morales, director of animal protection and welfare at Antioquia’s environment ministry.

In order to control the population, the Hippo relocations are more humane than exterminating them as an alien species because they’re native to Africa.

The plan for the hippos in the Hacienda Napoles Ranch, which is located in the southern outskirts of the Cuencay de los ruidos de Mexico

“We work with Ernesto Zazueta, who is the president of sanctuaries and zoos in Mexico, who is the one who liaisons with different countries and manage their rescues,” said the official.

The plan is to focus on the hippos in the rivers surrounding the Hacienda Napoles Ranch, not the ones inside the ranch because they are in a controlled environment.