iStockphoto / Kate Bauman
Colombia has spent years attempting to deal with an ever-growing population of feral hippos that can be traced back to Pablo Escobar, and the country has even more incentive to solve the problem now that they’ve started to attack people with no provocation.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Pablo Escobar became one of the wealthiest people on the planet courtesy of the billions of dollars the Medellin Cartel raked in on an annual basis courtesy of the cocaine trade.
The drug lord used some of the cash at his disposal to construct a massive compound dubbed “Hacienda Nápoles” in Puerto Triunfo, which boasted a private airport, a racetrack where he could take his massive collection of cars for a spin, and a zoo that was home to exotic animals from around the globe.
That menagerie included four hippos Escobar had imported from Africa, and after he was killed in a shootout with police in 1993, those animals were able to make their way out of their enclosures before finding a home in the rivers of a country that was not prepared for what was in store.
As things currently stand, there are at least 150 hippos roaming the wild in Colombia, which has spent years attempting to figure out how to stop them from reproducing while trying to address the environmental impact of the toxic poop they produce.
In 2022, an unfortunate driver unknowingly contributed to the cause when they killed one of the hippos in a car crash that totaled their vehicle. That’s not the only danger the hippos pose to humans, as they’ve been involved in at least two documented attacks in recent years.
According to Fox News, the animals haven’t chilled out one bit, as a reporter who went down to Colombia to cover the hippo problem spoke with a local who noted they’ve become increasingly aggressive, saying, “The hippos have started to attack people “as others note they’ve begun to hide if they encounter one of the “unpredictable” creatures.
I’m not sure how Hollywood hasn’t pounced on the chance to make a spiritual sequel to Cocaine Bear yet, but I assume it’s only a matter of time.