Escobar’s hippos are taking over Colombia

In the 1980s, Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippos into the country for his private estate. After his death in 1993, most of the offspring were sent to zoos, but three females and one male were allowed to wander free. It is predicted that by 2040 their numbers will reach 1,500 — the world’s largest invasive species. Sterilization is dangerous, time consuming and costly; scientists are only able to castrate one a year, and the population grows 10 per cent annually. The hippos will soon consume all the food and space available to them.