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The cocaine kingpin’s wildest legacy: what can be done with Pablo Escobar’s marauding hippos? | Animals | The Guardian

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The Colombian drug lord’s exotic menagerie fell apart after his death, and now wild hippos are breeding out of control I n the steamy heat of the afternoon, Yamit Diaz Romero steered our motorised longboat around overhanging bamboo branches and islets in the Claro Cocorná Sur River in Colombia. Red howler monkeys swung from the cables of a footbridge and screeched in the jungle. Herons, snowy egrets, brown pelicans and parakeets darted across the coffee-coloured water and soared over our heads. The river is known as a destination for whitewater rafting. But these days it’s also become the scene of a more unsettling natural phenomenon. Joining me on the vessel was Alejandro Mira, a veterinarian from Medellín, and Joshua Wilson, an American jiu-jitsu champion and world traveller who had hitched a ride with Mira and me and was sharing the experience with his followers on social media. Fishers motoring from the opposite direction gave warnings to Romero about what lay ahead. After an hour,

A hippo at Hacienda Nápoles park in Colombia, once the private estate of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP The Colombian drug lord’s exotic menagerie fell apart after his death, and now wild hippos are breeding out of control By Joshua Hammer Tue 27 Aug 2024 00.00 EDT Last modified on Wed 2 Apr 2025 10.29 EDT Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I n the steamy heat of the afternoon, Yamit Diaz Romero steered our motorised longboat around overhanging bamboo branches and islets in the Claro Cocorná Sur River in Colombia . Red howler monkeys swung from the cables of a foo

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