Hippopotamuses in Colombia

Hippopotamuses are an introduced species in Colombia. Four hippopotamuses were first kept by Pablo Escobar in his private zoo in the late 1970s, and upon his death in 1993, they were allowed to wander his unattended estate. The hippos eventually broke out of the estate and were left to roam the outside area, due to difficulty in containment. By 2019, their population had grown to approximately one hundred individuals, causing concerns about harming the native flora and fauna in the area, as well as posing a significant threat to the human population.