The herd of approximately 169 hippos initially started out as one male and three females after the notorious drug kingpin imported them for his private collection of exotic animals. 

Most of the other animals were relocated after Escobar’s death in 1993. Due to the hippos being so large, they were unable to transport them. Clearly, the government did not watch the DreamWorks animated film, Madagascar. 

The hippos also do not have any natural predators in Colombia, meaning their population was able to grow substantially. 

The government has said if “strong measures” are not taken to control the hippos, the population could grow to “1,000 individuals by 2035.”

Environment Minister Susana Muhamad explained that the government has proposed three strategies to control the hippo population: sterilisation, relocation and “ethical euthanasia.”

“All three strategies have to work together,” the statement read. “Here we are in a race against time in terms of the permanent environmental and ecosystem impacts that are being generated and that is why we cannot say that only one strategy is effective for our objective, which is to control the population.

“We are looking to implement this plan in the shortest possible time, precisely so that the impacts cease.”