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According to researchers, the descendants of Pablo Escobar's hippos should be slowed down in their spread as soon as possible - even with drastic means.
The experts fear that the reproductive animals will settle in larger parts of Colombia.
The drug lord Escobar once brought four African hippos to his Hacienda Nápoles, and recently an estimated 65 to 80 animals roamed the region.
"Our results show the urgent need for the Colombian authorities to make critical management decisions in order to limit population growth and the spread of hippos," the researchers write in the journal "Biological Conservation".
A killing is probably the only measure that can get the problem under control.
The animals destroy fields, unbalance the ecosystem and endanger local residents.
One of the offspring of four African hippos roams Colombia
Source: dpa / Sinikka Tarvainen
After Escobar was shot dead by security forces in 1993, the Hacienda Nápoles fell into disrepair.
The hippos migrated to the surrounding forests and reproduced.
Because they sometimes attack people, the measures practiced up to now, such as castration and sterilization, are not only time-consuming and obviously ineffective, but also dangerous.
"The option to kill was always on the table"
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"The option to kill them was always on the table," said biologist David Echeverry of the regional environmental agency Cornare, the US broadcaster CNN.
"However, it is very difficult to imagine that this could happen at the moment." The residents have gotten used to the hippos, they have become a tourist attraction.
Drug boss Pablo Escobar
Source: Wikimedia / Public Domain
In a way, the so-called cocaine hippos are representative of Escobar's legacy, which many Colombians would like to forget - which is not so easy, however.
The researchers also seem to be aware that their recommendations are difficult to implement: "Because the hippo is a very charismatic species, the approach (of killing) is not free from controversy."