BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) 鈥� Colombian officials on Monday authorized a plan to cull roaming freely through a region in the center of the country, where they threaten villagers and displace native species years after brought in the first ones.
Environment Minister Irene V茅lez said previous methods to have been expensive and unsuccessful, including neutering some of the animals or moving them to zoos. V茅lez said up to 80 hippos would be affected by the measure. She did not say when hunting would begin.
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 do this we will not be able to control the population,鈥� V茅lez said. 鈥淲e have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.鈥�
Colombia is the only country outside of Africa with a wild hippo population. The hippos are the descendants of four brought to the country in the 1980s by Escobar as he built a private zoo in Hacienda N谩poles, a gigantic ranch in the Magdalena River valley with a private landing strip that served as his rural abode.
A study published by Colombia鈥檚 National University estimated that around 170 hippos were roaming freely in the country in 2022.
Recently, hippos have been spotted in areas that are more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the ranch.
Environmental authorities in Colombia say the mammals pose a threat to villagers who have encountered them in farms and rivers. They also compete for food and space against local species such as river manatees.
Despite the challenges, the hippos have also become a tourist attraction, with residents of villages surrounding Hacienda N谩poles offering hippo spotting tours and selling hippo-themed souvenirs.
The hippos are also one of , which was confiscated by Colombia鈥檚 government as it seized Escobar鈥檚 properties. It now functions as a theme park, featuring swimming spools, water slides and a zoo that includes several other African species.
Animal welfare activists in Colombia have long opposed proposals to kill the hippos, arguing they deserve to live. They say that addressing the problem through violence sets a poor example for a country that has gone through decades of internal conflict.
Andrea Padilla, a senator and animal rights activist who helped draft a law against bullfights in Colombia, described the plan to cull the hippos as a 鈥渃ruel鈥� decision, and accused government officials of trying to take the easy way out.
鈥淜illings and massacres will never be acceptable,鈥� Padilla wrote on X. 鈥淭hese are healthy creatures who are victims of the negligence鈥� of government entities.
Over the past 12 years, spanning three presidential administrations, Colombia has tried to neuter some of the hippos in a bid to reduce their population. But the initiatives have had limited scope due to high costs that come with capturing the dangerous animals and performing surgeries on them.
Because Colombia鈥檚 hippos come from a limited gene pool and could carry diseases, taking them back to their natural habitat in Africa has been considered unfeasible.
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