Pablo Escobar was a infamous Colombian drug lord who grew to become one of many wealthiest and strongest criminals in history: he was also an animal lover.
During his heyday within the 1980s, he famously owned a big assortment of exotic animals, together with elephants, giraffes, and hippopotami. If Escobar was an issue for the authorities when he was alive then so are his remaining hippos.
After he died in 1993, his collection of 70 African hippos had been left to roam free within the Antioquia region of Colombia, inflicting an ecological problem for the nation. Now, the Colombian authorities plans to relocate the hippos to overseas sanctuaries at a price of US$3.5m, reported Aljazeera.
Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles, where the hippos lived, has become a vacationer attraction since his death. However, the hippos’ presence has led to concerns over their impression on the setting. The hippos are a territorial species, weighing up to three tonnes, and wouldn’t have natural predators in Colombia. Their faeces change the composition of rivers, which may have an effect on the habitat of manatees and capybaras.
To address Trade secret , last yr the Colombian authorities declared the hippos a toxic invasive species and tried a sterilisation programme to regulate their inhabitants, however it failed. Banned nows to relocate 60 of the hippos to the Greens Zoological Rescue & Rehabilitation Kingdom in Gujarat, India, and another 10 to zoos and sanctuaries in Mexico.
Ernesto Zazueta, the proprietor of the Ostok Sanctuary in Sinaloa, Mexico, one of the destinations for the hippos, said…
“The whole operation ought to price around US$3.5m.”
The hippos shall be lured into pens earlier than being placed in special crates for transportation.
The relocation is considered as a necessary measure to save the hippos’ lives and protect Colombia’s biodiversity. Otherwise, the setting ministry would have needed to contemplate culling the animals. Other nations, similar to Ecuador, the Philippines, and Botswana, have expressed their willingness to take the hippos.
The destiny of his hippos is now in the palms of animal welfare activists and authorities officers who hope to ensure their safety and shield the setting.
Escobar engaged in a shootout with police and soldiers on a rooftop, which led to his death on December 2, 1993, in Medellin. He was forty four years old at the time, having celebrated his forty fourth birthday simply in the future prior. Interestingly, five months earlier than his demise, he had been listed in Forbes magazine’s rating of the wealthiest people on the earth for the seventh time..