Colombia is proposing transferring at least 70 hippopotamuses that live near Pablo Escobar’s former ranch — descendants of four imported from Africa illegally by the late drug lord in the 1980s – to India and Mexico as part of a plan to control their population.
The hippos, which are territorial and weigh up to 3 tons, have spread far beyond the Hacienda Nápoles ranch, located 200 kilometers from Bogotá along the Magdalena River. Environmental authorities estimate there are about 130 hippos in the area in Antioquia province and their population could reach 400 in eight years.
