Overview

• Colombia has begun sterilizing the hippos descended from the four that drug lord Pablo Escobar left behind when he was killed in 1993.
• Colombian officials describe the hippos as an aggressive and invasive species with no natural predators.
• The government’s goal is to sterilize 40 hippos a year, each sterilization will cost about 40 million pesos (roughly $10,000) and will require a team of eight people.
• The government was also developing an “ethical euthanasia protocol” but did not say how many hippos might be targeted or by what method.
• The government was in talks to have some of the hippos relocated to sanctuaries in Mexico, India and the Philippines.