ENSTU 300: Critical Thinking & Communication in Environmental Studies

Colombian Hippos
Andrew Hernandez, California State University Monterey Bay, Professor Ximena
Waissbluth

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/colombians-grapple-big-problem-wandering-hip
pos-69162939

Intro: General Issue

How did a hippopotamus that’s native to Africa end up in Central America in Colombia?
Hippopotamuses, Hippopotamus amphibious, are one of the most unique animals in the world.
They are native to Africa and spend the majority of their life in the water. Hippos usually spend
sixteen hours a day submerged in the water in order to protect themselves from the sweltering
conditions of Africa. A major problem that Colombia is facing is having an invasive species of
hippopotamuses that are destroying their environment. These hippos have ruined the ecosystem
by competing with native wildlife by polluting water with their toxic waste (Subalusky,2021).
While hippos in Africa are used as fertilizers in their ecosystem with their feces, in Colombia
they just contribute carbon to the lakes, and dissolved oxygen cycles suggest that their presence
stimulates ecosystem metabolism (Shurin et al., 2020). The emergence of such a huge,
potentially deadly species in a new habitat raises a number of ethical and ecological concerns.
History of the problem

Since 1981 Colombia has been facing a major issue with this invasive species
(Castelblanco-Martínez, 2021 ). This issue originated with four hippos that were smuggled into
the country by Pablo Escobar for his exotic zoo. The apparent reason why hippos are in
Colombia is that the government attempted to confiscate Pablo Escobar’s animals after they
killed him, but were unable to do so due to their aggression and size. Hippos thrived in Colombia
since the weather was perfect for them and they didn’t have any natural predators in that
environment. Colombia being the perfect environment for hippos thrived and grew in population.
What started off with 4 hippos is now roughly around 80 hippos ( Dembitzer,2017). They tried to
stop the hippo population from getting larger by castrating them, but it was successful( Figure 2
). They found it extremely difficult to castrate them since their reproductive system was internal
rather than external (Shurin et al., 2020). The option that the Colombian Government is most
considering is just to simply kill all the hippos which would ultimately end their invasive species
problem. The hippopotamus problem in Colombia seems to keep growing and if nothing happens
there will be major consequences for the Colombian ecosystem.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Observed-and-projected-growth-of-the-Colombian-hippo-po
pulation-Four-individuals-were_fig1_338888296
(Figure2)
Figure 2 Shows how the population has grown throughout the year in Colombia.

Scientific Understanding

The hippopotamus population is threatening Colombia's future ecosystems and problems will
only get worse with the hippopotamus population multiplying. Colombia leaning toward killing
these hippopotamus has caused a lot of conflict between the Colombian people and the
Colombian government due to the fact that innocent animals are getting put down. The
Colombian government ultimately went the route of killing hippos by starting it off slowly
killing a hippopotamus named “Pepe”(Romaine, 2021). When the people of Colombia found out
what the Colombian government had done they were outraged and took it to the Colombian
streets to protest against the killing of the hippopotamus “Pepe”(Morales Pineda, M. 2020). With
that being said the Colombian government is just looking out for their future and doesn't want
the issue to get bigger than it already is. Something that isn’t surprising at all involving this issue
is that America is trying to get involved with this problem. A federal court in America has
deemed the original first hippos imported by Pablo Escobar and the offspring of those hippos
interested persons”, with legal rights to the United States (Jenna Romaine, 2021). Since Pablo
Escobar was killed by the DEA America seized his possessions. This meant that the hippos were
stopped from getting killed and were basically saved by America.

Solution
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture have
donated a drug to the region's environmental authority that will help sterilize them using
“GonaCon '' (Weisberger, 2022). One solution for this issue would be to try and sterilize them by
using the GonaCona. Biologists decided to sterilize the animals, starting with 24 hippos who
were given doses of a contraceptive vaccine to make them infertile (Weisberger, 2022). This
would prevent anyone from seriously getting hurt. Sterilizing them would be easier than doing
surgery on them and it would also be cheaper (Weisberger, 2022). Some struggle that this
solution might have is finding the hippos. Since they are submerged in water the whole day it
would be extremely difficult to find them but once they do it’ll get easier. Apart from saving
these beautiful creatures from getting killed, the people of Colombia will be happier knowing
that they didn’t just kill them. Something to add as well is that hippopotamus will just slowly die
over time with natural death and will never be able to reproduce if, in fact, this is able to actually
work.

References
Castelblanco-Martínez, D. N., Moreno-Arias, R. A., Velasco, J. A., Moreno-Bernal, J. W.,
Restrepo, S., Noguera-Urbano, E. A., ... & Jiménez, G. (2021). A hippo in the room: Predicting
the persistence and dispersion of an invasive mega-vertebrate in Colombia, South America.
Biological Conservation, 253, 108923.

Dembitzer, J. (2017). The Case for Hippos in Colombia, Israel Journal of Ecology and Evolution,
63(3-4), 5-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22244662-06303002

Morales Pineda, M. (2020). Hipopótamos en Colombia: una aproximación a la problemática de

invasión y las opciones de manejo. Universidad de los Andes.
Romaine, J. (2021, October 26). US court rules that Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' are people.
TheHill. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/578447-us-court-rules-that-pabl
o-escobars-cocaine-hippos

Shurin, J. B., Aranguren-Riaño, N., Duque Negro, D., Echeverri Lopez, D., Jones, N. T.,
Laverde‐R, O., ... & Pedroza Ramos, A. (2020). Ecosystem effects of the world’s largest
invasive animal. Ecology, 101(5), e02991.

Subalusky, A. L., Anderson, E. P., Jiménez, G., Post, D. M., Lopez, D. E., García-R, S., ... &
Jiménez-Segura, L. F. (2021). Potential ecological and socio-economic effects of a novel
megaherbivore introduction: the hippopotamus in Colombia. Oryx, 55(1), 105-113.

Weisberger, M., 2022. Pablo Escobar's 'cocaine hippos' are being sterilized because the
population is out of control. [online] livescience.com. Available at:
<https://www.livescience.com/sterilizing-escobars-cocaine-hippos