Hippopotamuses in Colombia

Rare card · No. 61004

Hippopotamuses are an introduced species in Colombia. Four hippopotamuses were first kept by the drug lord Pablo Escobar in his private zoo in the early 1980s, and upon his death in 1993, they were allowed to wander his unattended estate. The hippos eventually broke out of the estate and, being too difficult to contain, were left to roam the area. By 2026, their population has grown to around two hundred individuals, causing concerns about harming the native flora and fauna in the area, as well as posing a significant threat to people.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Alvaro Morales Ríos, CC BY-SA 4.0