Colombians grapple with a big problem: wandering hippos

Maria Jaramilla awoke in middle of night to sound of her panicked mule. When she looked out across her small yard, her confusion turned to shock: A hippopotamus h wandered down her driveway and was inspecting her house.

“It was a big fright for all of us,” said Jaramilla, 41.

Since that night in 2018, hippos have kept coming — wandering down back streets of rural Doral, a small Colombian town a four-hour drive from Medellin. Occasionally a hippopotamus will appear on local soccer pitch to graze.

An estimated 80 hippopotamuses, perhaps more, live in area around Rio Magdalena, Colombia’s principal river, which runs through center of country. y're descendants of four hippos that were brought to country by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar for his personal collection.

rapid growth of ir numbers has authorities worried that residents could be attacked — 3-ton animals can be aggressive and kill more people per year in Africa than any or wildlife species. Scientists also worry that ir presence threatens area’s native flora and fauna.

In 1980s, during height of his power, Escobar kept hippos in a private zoo on his 5,500-acre (2,225-hectare) estate, Hacienda Napoles, where he kept a private zoo stocked with exotic animals such as elephants and giraffes.

Following Escobar’s death in 1993 most of animals were taken to new homes or died. But t hippos. ir size and cost to transport meant y were abandoned.

But while Escobar’s estate fell into disrepair, animals thrived.

conditions around Hacienda Napoles are ideal for hippos. y live in area’s large lakes and waterways, enjoy endless grass pastures to graze in and y have natural predators.

Students at a small primary school behind Escobar’s former estate arrive for class each day by passing a sign that res “danger — hippopotamus present”.

“It worries us,” said Wilber Quines who teaches at school. “We have to lock ourselves inside with children to try and avoid an accident.”

So far, hippos have refrained from attacking humans, but as ir numbers grow and y expand into more populated areas, experts fear an attack could be inevitable.

Yet hippos are ored by many of Doral’s residents for ir surprise visits and ecomic boost ir presence brings in form of tourism. Each afteron in town’s main park, children hang and play from statues of hippos while shops throughout town sell key rings and souvenirs of animals.

hippos are also having an impact on native flora and fauna with indications presence of animals is displacing some local species.

A new study by researchers at University of California, San Diego, found hippos are changing quality of water in which y spend much of ir time. hippos feed at night n spend day cooling off in water where y defecate, changing chemistry in lakes.

“That can have various negative consequences, from outbreaks of harmful algae blooms and things like red tide bacteria,” said Jonathan Shurin, a UCSD biologist who led study.

“If ir population keeps growing way it is, potential impact could be much more severe.”

That has left local authorities scrambling to come up with a solution to hippopotamus problem.

Cornare, environmental ncy that is responsible for region where hippos are currently located, has been tasked with finding a solution that residents are comfortable with but that also deals with animals in a humane way.

“It’s urgent,” said Gina Serna, a specialist with Cornare who helps man hippopotamus issue.

“We alrey have a report of a family of hippopotamuses in Magdalena river. Magdalena connects almost all of Colombia so y could move into any part of country.”

w a plan has been hatched to sterilize animals. Serna and a group from Cornare last year conducted an in--wild surgical sterilization of a female, first ever in Colombia.

It’s a complex procedure that requires luring and trapping a hippo in a corral before using sedatives to put it to sleep. Just cutting through a hippo’s dense layers of skin, fat and muscle takes three hours. n animal is sterilized and stitched up and allowed to return to wild while ir recovery is monitored.

Later this year, Cornare will attempt multiple surgical sterilizations, as well as a chemical sterilization technique that has been successful in pigs.

But y ackwledge that won’t be eugh to contain a hippopotamus population that is estimated to quruple over next 10 years and could eventually reach into thousands. For w, it’s as much as y can afford.

“With more help and more money, we could be more effective,” said Serna.

In meantime, locals are learning to live with ir new neighbors.

For Giver Cardona, that means being extra careful when driving his wife to work on ir motorbike along dirt ros behind Hacienda Napoles.

One morning this year, Cardona was returning home from dropping his wife off before sunrise when he rounded a corner and collided with a large, dark object. It was a hippopotamus.

As 31-year-old scrambled to his feet, he was relieved to see hippo h same response as him — to run away.

“w when I pass by here in mornings I go slowly and check around every corner,” Cardona said. “y keep us worried.”