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Colombia has authorized the euthanasia of up to 80 invasive hippos descended from animals once kept by drug lord Pablo Escobar, after officials concluded that earlier efforts to contain the population had proven too costly and ineffective.
Colombia on April 13, 2026, approved a plan to euthanize dozens of hippos roaming freely in a central region of the country, where the animals have increasingly come to be seen as a threat to both local communities and native wildlife.
Environment Minister Irene Velez said the decision followed years of attempts to manage the population through other means, including sterilization and transfers to zoos. Those approaches, she indicated, had not delivered the needed results and had also driven up costs.
She said up to 80 hippos would be euthanized, although no timeline was announced for when the operation would begin. Stressing the environmental stakes, Velez said, "If we don't do this, we will not be able to control the population. We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems."
The animals are the descendants of four hippos brought to Colombia in the 1980s by Escobar, who kept them at his private estate, Hacienda Napoles.
Over time, those animals multiplied in the wild, leaving Colombia with what officials describe as the only free-ranging hippo population outside Africa. Research by the National University of Colombia estimated that around 170 hippos were living in the wild as of 2022.
Because of their rapid population growth and impact on the surrounding environment, the Colombian government has classified them as an invasive species, a term used for non-native animals or plants that spread in ways that disrupt local ecosystems.
Officials have also looked into relocating some of the hippos to sanctuaries abroad, but that option has proven expensive. The reported cost of relocation was estimated at around $3.5 million.
Experts have meanwhile warned that sterilization alone would not be enough to slow the animals' growth in the long run, helping push authorities toward a more direct population-control plan.
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