PITFALL ZOOLOGY
Move Over Cocaine Bear, Here Come Escobar’s Hungry Hippos
How a drug lord caused one of Africa’s most dangerous animals to take over the Colombian wilderness
On 2 December 1993, smiling drug baron, narcoterrorist and politician (is that a tautology?), Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, died in a shootout with Colombian special operations. Among other things, he left behind $30 billion, the 20 km2 Hacienda Nápoles (subsequently converted into a theme park), a wife, a mistress, two children and four hippos.
Shortly after, the hippos busted out of the hacienda and for the next three decades they and their descendants rampaged across Colombia in a spectacle that would have impressed the King of Cocaine himself.
This is their story.
¿Qué pasó?
Like many sociopaths, Escobar enjoyed collecting exotic animals. He arranged for one male and three female hippos to be captured in Africa and smuggled to Hacienda Nápoles in rural Colombia. The hippos were kept in Escobar’s private zoo and used to impress and entertain members of the cartel community.
After Escobar’s death, authorities seized his estate and moved his exotic animals to zoos. All except the hippos. They were…
