Pablo Escobar’s Hippos: An Update

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It looked like a large log to a fisherman cruising down Colombia’s Magdelena River near Puerto Olaya a few weeks ago. But then the log began moving toward his boat and suddenly opened its enormous jaws, revealing menacing yellow teeth the size of bananas. It was a hippopotamus. For a moment the terrified fisherman thought the beast was going to swallow him and his boat. The hippo was one of a pair of males that had fled Hacienda Napoles, the 5,000-acre ranch once owned by the late Colombian narco kingpin Pablo Escobar. A Times story published last Dec. 20 detailed how a herd of 16 hippos, once part of Escobar’s private wild animal park, were about the only things of value that remained of kingpin’s pleasure palace. Or were they of value? After Escobar was killed in 1993, his other animals were eagerly claimed by Colombian zoos. But none had claimed the hippos, which were too ornery and bulky to move.

Officials theorized that the dominant male of the Napoles herd chased two younger males away. Following their instincts, the fleeing hippos made their way to the Magdelena River and swam 130 miles downstream, where one of them startled the fisherman. They may still be swimming toward the Atlantic and maybe on to Africa - in hopes, some here say, of finding female hippos as possible mates.

Posted by Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia