Vantara wants Escobar’s hippos: how the drug lord’s animals caught Anant Ambani’s attention

Here’s a look at the history of these non-indigenous hippos, and Colombia has been keen to cull them despite their relatively small numbers.

Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippos’

Escobar, who was considered the world’s wealthiest narco trafficker, had many extravagances, one of which was collecting exotic wild animals at his luxurious Hacienda Nápoles fortress, 250 km northwest of Colombia’s capital Bogotá. His private zoo boasted of a variety of animals illegally imported into the country, such as kangaroos, elephants, giraffes and hippos.

When Escobar was killed in 1993, most of the animals on the sprawling estate were rounded up and distributed to zoos across the country, except his four hippos – one male and three females – which authorities found too difficult and expensive to transport.

Left undisturbed, and without any natural predators, the hippos multiplied to 16 by 2007, 40 by 2014, and are currently estimated to number around 200 over an area of more than 2,250 sq km. Their population is expected to grow to the thousands in the next few decades without intervention. According to an expert speaking to BBC, Colombia’s hippo herd is now the biggest outside Africa.

The ‘cocaine hippos’ are thriving in the fertile region between Medellín and Bogotá, and are now spreading in the Magdalena River, one of the country’s main waterways. A reason for their growing numbers is that unlike in Africa, the hippos have no natural predators in Colombia.

Why scientists want them culled

Being non-native in Colombia, the hippos are considered an invasive species, and their growing population is believed to be a ticking time bomb that will seriously harm indigenous flora and fauna.

They are considered to be a threat to local species such as the West Indian manatee, Neotropical otter, spectacled caiman, turtles as well as endangered ones such as Dahl’s toad-headed turtle and the Magdalena River turtle. Growth in the number of feral hippos is also expected to cause deadly encounters with humans.

A study published in the journal Biological Conservation in 2021 argued that culling the hippos is the only option to deal with this menace. It said that if the hippos are not killed now, their numbers could expand to 1,500 by 2035. To prevent their environmental impact, 30 animals need to be killed or castrated every year to stop their numbers from expanding.

Castration, however, is an option that has already been dismissed by many in the past, mainly due to the animal’s aggressive behaviour even while being in a sedated state, and due to the procedure’s high cost. A castration performed in 2009 cost $50,000, according to the BBC.

Ecologist Nataly Castelblanco-Martínez, the lead author of the study, has described the hippo problem to the Associated Press as “one of the greatest challenges of invasive species in the world”.

Last year, another study found that the hippos have caused levels of nutrients and cyanobacteria to go up in the lakes that they inhabit, which can lead to toxic algae blooms and die-offs of aquatic fauna.

How Vantara factors into this equation

Addressing Colombia’s Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres, Anant Ambani proposed a “scientifically led” translocation of the animals from the Magdalene River Basin to Jamnagar, Gujarat which is where Vantara is situated.

He said that Vantara would provide veterinary expertise, capture and transport logistics, biosecurity measures and lifelong care for the animals at a purpose-built facility designed to replicate their natural habitat.

Situated on a 3,500-acre land parcel, Vantara is a private wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center and serves as a sanctuary for over 200,000 animals. The zoo is equipped with state-of-the-art veterinary services and boasts ICU, MRI, CT scan and dental service capacity for all animals housed within its borders.

Ambani has argued that the combination of infrastructure, experience and specialized care the zoo provides is a logically humane alternative to the culling greenlit by the Colombian government.

Resistance by Colombian locals

Despite the negative impacts that several studies have attributed to the feral hippos, the exotic animals are hugely popular among locals, and the government has imposed a ban on hunting them. In 2009, when Colombian Army soldiers gunned down a feral hippo called Pepe, it led to a massive public outcry.

For many local people, the hippos are a source of revenue from tourism, and culling them is an unpalatable idea. Some experts too oppose the idea to cull them, arguing that the ‘cocaine hippos’ offer an opportunity to preserve the global number of hippopotamuses, which are regarded by many NGOs as a vulnerable species.