Pablo Escobar's legacy: Hippos

[ATL]

Probably the coolest invasive species problem I've heard about:

September 11, 2009
Doradal Journal
Colombia Confronts Drug Lord’s Legacy: Hippos
By SIMON ROMERO

DORADAL, Colombia — Even in Colombia, a country known for its paramilitary death squads, this hunting party stood out: more than a dozen soldiers from a Colombian Army battalion, two Porsche salesmen armed with long-range rifles, their assistant, and a taxidermist.

They stalked Pepe through the backlands of Colombia for three days in June before executing him in a clearing about 60 miles from here with shots to his head and heart. But after a snapshot emerged of soldiers posing over his carcass, the group suddenly found itself on the defensive.

As it turned out, Pepe — a hippopotamus who escaped from his birthplace near the pleasure palace built here by the slain drug lord Pablo Escobar — had a following of his own.

The meticulously organized operation to hunt Pepe down, carried out with the help of environmentalists, has become the focus of an unusually fierce debate over animal rights and the containment of invasive species in a country still struggling to address a broad range of rights violations during four decades of protracted war with guerrillas.

“In Colombia, there is no documented case of an attack against people or that they damaged any crops,” said Aníbal Vallejo, president of the Society for the Protection of Animals in Medellín, referring to the hippos. “No sufficient motive to sacrifice one of these animals has emerged in the 28 years since Pablo Escobar brought them to his hacienda.”

Sixteen years after the infamous Mr. Escobar was gunned down on a Medellín rooftop in a manhunt, Colombia is still wrestling with the mess he made.

Wildlife experts from Africa brought here to study Colombia’s growing numbers of hippos, a legacy of Mr. Escobar’s excesses, have in recent days bolstered the government’s plan to prevent them — by force, if necessary — from spreading into areas along the nation’s principal river. But some animal-rights activists are so opposed to the idea of killing them that they have called for the firing of President Álvaro Uribe’s environment minister.

Peter Morkel, a consultant for the Frankfurt Zoological Society in Tanzania, compared the potential for the hippos to disrupt Colombian ecosystems to the agitation caused by alien species elsewhere, like goats on the Galápagos Islands, cats on Marion Island between Antarctica and South Africa, or pythons in Florida.

“Colombia is absolute paradise for hippos, with its climate, vegetation and no natural predators,” Mr. Morkel said.

“But as much as I love hippos, they are an alien species and extremely dangerous to people who disrupt them,” he continued. “Since castration of the males is very difficult, the only realistic option is to shoot those found off the hacienda.”

The uproar has its roots in 1981, when Mr. Escobar was busy assembling a luxurious retreat here called Hacienda Nápoles that included a Mediterranean-style mansion, swimming pools, a 1,000-seat bull ring and an airstrip.

“He needed a tranquil place to unwind with his family,” said Fernando Montoya, 57, a sculptor from Medellín who built giant statues here of Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs for Mr. Escobar.

Hired by private administrators of the seized estate, part of which is now a theme park (imagine mixing “Jurassic Park” and “Scarface” into a theme), Mr. Montoya rebuilt the same statues after looters tore them apart searching for hidden booty.

But Mr. Escobar was not content with just fake dinosaurs and bullfights. In what ecologists describe as possibly the continent’s most ambitious effort to assemble a collection of species foreign to South America, he imported animals like zebras, giraffes, kangaroos, rhinoceroses and, of course, hippopotamuses.

Some of the animals died or were transferred to zoos around the time Mr. Escobar was killed. But the hippos largely stayed put, flourishing in the artificial lakes dug at Mr. Escobar’s behest.

Carlos Palacio, 54, head of animal husbandry at Nápoles, said Mr. Escobar started in 1981 with four hippos. Now, he said, at least 28 live on the estate. “With our current level of six births a year set to climb, we could easily have more than 100 hippos on this hacienda in a decade,” Mr. Palacio said.

“Some experts see this herd as a treasure of the natural world in case Africa’s hippo population suffers a sharp decline,” Mr. Palacio continued. “Others view our growth as a kind of time bomb.”

The number of hippos on the hacienda could have reached 31 had Pepe, the slain hippo, not clashed about three years ago with the herd’s dominant hippo, then left with a mate for other pastures. Once established near Puerto Berrío, the mate gave birth to a calf.

Faced with the possibility of a nascent colony away from Nápoles, Colombian authorities decided to act. After all, hippos, despite their docile appearance, are thought to kill more people in Africa than any other large animal.

Unable to find a zoo that would accept the three hippos in Puerto Berrío, officials in the department, or province, of Antioquia considered their options.

Capturing them was expensive, costing as much as $40,000 for each hippo, in a country where malnourishment among the poor remains a major problem, said Luis Alfonso Escobar — not related to Pablo Escobar — head of Corantioquia, a state environmental organization. Taking them to Africa was dangerous, in addition to being expensive, because of the new diseases they might introduce there.

So the officials opted for a hunt and hired a nonprofit conservation group, the Neotropical Wildlife Foundation, to help manage the operation.

The foundation brought in two experienced hunters, Federico Pfeil-Schneider and Christian Pfeil-Schneider, both of whom also represent the car manufacturer Porsche in Colombia. To ensure the hunting party’s safety, the environmentalists also secured an escort of soldiers.

All went as planned until the hunt’s details and the photo of the soldiers appeared in the news media. Outrage ensued. Newspapers speculated on the fate of Pepe’s severed head. (Luis Alfonso Escobar, of Corantioquia, rejected rumors that it went to the hunters.) A judge in Medellín issued a ruling suspending the hunt for Pepe’s mate and their offspring.

Meanwhile, other hippos may be on the loose. Mr. Palacio, the hippo caretaker here, said at least one was lurking in the waters of a neighboring ranch. Mr. Morkel, the veterinarian, said one or two others could have wandered off, according to local reports.

On the grounds of Hacienda Nápoles, a sign warns visitors to the theme park. “Stay in your vehicle after 6 p.m.,” it reads. “Hippopotamuses on the road.”

[John Brown]

A Hippopotamus named Pepe. Awesome.

I don't understand people wanting to save these animals, feral species are very dangerous to the environment. Feral goats and pigs can destroy an ecosystem, so I can only imagine Hippos being 10x worse if they bred out of control. Plus they're highly territorial and will stomp you to death if you get anywhere near them. I say shoot them all.

[Harriet Tubman]

I didn't read the article (too long), but pablo is an awesome name like Gomez.

An even awesomer name is one my cousin made up: Chico Neusbaum.

[John Brown]

[Stand Watie]

Originally Posted by GregN.

I didn't read the article (too long), but pablo is an awesome name like Gomez.

An even awesomer name is one my cousin made up: Chico Neusbaum.

I work with someone who's first name is Pablo. And his las name is Hebrew.

[xmods (jwm2)]

Funny how in the movie "blow" they made pablo out to be a pretty big guy, but in reality he was short and fat.

[W.T. Sherman]

Colombia should auction the live Hippos for hunting.

Big game hunters would flock to shoot a hippo if they were able to keep it.

They'd make mad cash.

I'm assuming of course that hunting hippos in Africa is illegal.

Pablo Escabar's extravagance sounds awesome.

[Harriet Tubman]

Pablo Honey wasn't a great album; the only good song off of it is "creep."

[W.T. Sherman]

Originally Posted by GregN.

Pablo Honey wasn't a great album; the only good song off of it is "creep."

Not true. I think the song is called Dark Star, but that's great.

That might be on The Bends though.

There is some song on Pablo Honey I really like though that isn't creep.

[ElectricGrave]

This is the fucking news you get internationally from Colombia...what a fucking bunch of bullshit.

Which brings me to the fucking News nowdays, all the news programs are filled with retardedness, I don't feel informed after watching shit like that. I don't care about a freaking broad carrying a damn posterboard of her boyfrined for her vacation in hawaii while he's in Iraq.

I mean how much crap are this fucking media gonna keep on feeding the public with!! Here they're atlking about some hippo shit going on and the mess that Escobar left, what mess exactly? The hippo mess or the real state mess that teh goverment doesn't want you to know about 'cause he left so much of it to the common folk that the mayor of freaking medellin decided to cover up that fact with suppossedly some sort of program to grant homes to the unpriviledge, the thing is that the fucking state was already given!! Why the fuck do they have to sell it in the first place!?

Fuck your hippos! This is what the media is doing to everyone hiding the real thing and covering it with bull shit!! So one or 2 hundred hippos are gonna cause tstrife on the ecosystem! WTF?! Simply take them to the Amazonas and they'll be in a more suited enviorment where they'll belnd in the food chain just fine.

Fucking give me a break!

[W.T. Sherman]

Originally Posted by electricgrave

Simply take them to the Amazonas and they'll be in a more suited enviorment where they'll belnd in the food chain just fine.

Fucking give me a break!

No, they wont "blend" in fine.

They'll wreak havoc and throw the natural balance of the habitat completely out of whack.

That is the point.

Colombia has enough political problems as it is. Do you want Colombia and her neighboring states to suffer from potentially serious ecological disasters in the future because of the threat of a known, invasive alien species?

Do something now before it fucks up the ecosystem.

[ElectricGrave]

OK let's check out the ecosystem in Amazonas for a second, and I'm not talking about neighboring amazonas areas. Colombia's Amazonean region covers about 15 to 20 % of its size. Now let's check this out again. In Antioquia it could be a problem, the magdalene river is just not equiped with a proper food chain to balance out the hippos into the equation. BUT we're not talking about the magdalene river nor the cordillera occidental, we're atlking about freaking amazonas where there are crocs, pumas/jaguars, bobcats, and pirahnas.

Also if you think about it the Aamazonas river is the strongest river in the planet, seriously it has the strongest and boradest mass of water to date to in all honesty I think the hippos will have a hard time surviving the shit, but yeah let's just kill the fuckers and make fun of the disaster that Escobar left, 'cause after all that's all that fucking matters.

[W.T. Sherman]

I didn't know you were an ecologist.

[David G. Farragut]

@electricgrave: Hippo sex sells man, sorry, but that is the news these days.

@Lagduf: I don't really like the concept of 'invasive' species. Human migration has caused the spread of hundres or thousands of other species whether intentionally or unintentionally, we are not separate from the world we live in.

That being said, if I was Columbia I'd let folks hunt those hippos to extinction.

[W.T. Sherman]

Originally Posted by lithy

@electricgrave: Hippo sex sells man, sorry, but that is the news these days.

@Lagduf: I don't really like the concept of 'invasive' species. Human migration has caused the spread of hundres or thousands of other species whether intentionally or unintentionally, we are not separate from the world we live in.

That being said, if I was Columbia I'd let folks hunt those hippos to extinction.

The effects of hippo's spreading are unknown, and while I agree with you, they have the potential to fuck up the environment as we know it - so with that regard they're fucking with us, as humans, since we don't want it that way.

It could have an adverse effect on the resources we need, you never know, so yeah - purely selfish motives.

Also, COLOMBIA son.

[ElectricGrave]

I didn't know you were a fucking know it all either but there you go!

I lived 2 years in the Amazonas region of Colombia, I worked with Kapax as his errand boy, it was fun and I learned a lot. If there is anyone who knows the river better than anyone is him and he would agree with me. You've never been there and neither are most of the idiots that are making a fuss about this whole thing, so neither you or them are likely to know what the fuck to make of it.

The Amazonas riever will consume this bloated beats and at least it would be a more "natural" death than dying on the hands of some crazed young douchebag that was forced to pay military service as customary in Colombia, this is awful I know, Escobar was a fool for doing this I know, but the shit is done and killing the hippos is not the answer, just capture them and move them, this way the crazy animal rights people are happy and the folks that want them out of medellin are happy, plus the folks from the Amazonas would have a blast this I know 'cause I know the people from there.

The Amazonas isn't a fragile ecosystem, it is presumptious to even call it a habitat as the animals in there don't even consider it a home, most of them are nomads and only monkeys travel in big numbers and even at that the numbers aren't that big. The Hippos won't survive long and they won't stay in groups either given the sluchyness if the amazones river "floor", there's just not oneplace big enought to fit them all properly the way they are used to and thus some of them will have to travel a bit and all to find a place of resting and doing the mud thing which is most likely not gonna happen much 'cause the calm part s of the river are constantly guarded by voracious animals and fish.

The fuck you know douchebag! Watch, just give it a while, this is exactly what is going to end up happening anyway.

[Stand Watie]

Originally Posted by electricgrave

The Hippos won't survive long and they won't stay in groups either given the sluchyness if the amazones river "floor", t
.

Man didn't you see Jurassic Park?

Nature always finds a way!

[ElectricGrave]

Exactly, the river will find a way to dipose of what doesn't fit. It is that simple.

[ATL]

All I know is that Milton Bradley is missing the boat on a great marketing opportunity:

Pablo Escobar's
Hambre Hambre Hippos!