by Ol'ga Kuznetsova
[REGNUM] The legacy of Latin American drug cartels isn't just new types of drugs or exorbitant levels of violence. The notorious Pablo Escobar, for example, left Colombia a brood of hippos.
In the 1980s, deciding to create a "safari corner" on his estate, a drug lord acquired one male hippo and three female hippos. They were originally imported from Africa, but the baron acquired them from a California zoo. Some sources report that the animals were chosen deliberately—their excrement helped mask the smell of cocaine and interfered with the work of the sniffer dogs.
"baron"?
However, this explanation only makes sense if it was a single, large shipment of drugs. So, a more realistic theory is that the hippos were Escobar's childhood dream, and the zoo, home to lions, elephants, giraffes, ostriches, and other animals, was a gift to his children.
Some American TV series, attempting to heighten the sinister aura surrounding the legendary criminal, hint that Pablo Escobar fed captured enemies or their bodies to these hippos. However, there is no reliable evidence that this actually happened, let alone on a regular basis.
After Escobar's assassination in 1993, the animals were distributed among zoos, but no one took the hippos due to their high cost of upkeep. Some, however, claimed that the animals were simply forgotten on the estate or that they escaped into the jungle.
No one expected them to survive in the Latin American climate, so they gave up. As it turned out, they were wrong: the enormous animals not only survived, but also multiplied.
By 2023, their population had already reached 168 individuals, and in recent years, Colombian officials have been trumpeting that if the issue is not addressed seriously, there will be too many of them by 2030.
A LURE FOR TOURISTS
Hippos in Africa are a kind of "savannah cleaner," their droppings fertilizing the land and maintaining the microbial balance in rivers. Furthermore, crocodiles and lions—predators that naturally regulate their population—live in the same area.
In Colombia, the situation is different: the hippopotamus is the only predator in the local wild, and its presence pollutes the waterways. Furthermore, these animals primarily inhabit the Magdalena River, the country's main waterway, whose banks are home to both farmers and indigenous peoples.
Hippos periodically attack them (these animals are, in principle, dangerous to humans, whether in Colombia or Africa), and also negatively impact the fishing industry and the lives of other waterfowl: otters, capybaras, river turtles, manatees.
However, they do have their uses: the "cocaine behemoths" attract tourists, and entertainment industry entrepreneurs earn a good living.
However, at a certain point, Colombian authorities declared that the damage caused by the animals had become too great. Finally, they decided to address the situation.
IT ALL CAME DOWN TO HUNTING
Local officials suggested sterilizing the animals—and at first everyone liked the idea.
True, the Colombians soon had to learn the immortal words of Korney Chukovsky: "It's no easy task to drag a hippopotamus out of a swamp." Capturing one individual, subduing it, anesthetizing it, finding a specialized veterinarian, and performing the surgery itself required tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, given Colombian realities, it's impossible to claim that the entire sum was spent on the procedure, but the undertaking was nonetheless prohibitively expensive.
Activists then began suggesting sending the hippos to zoos abroad. However, these good intentions ran into industry standards: zoos in large countries like Mexico would not accept more than ten individuals, which was clearly insufficient.
In mid-April 2026, conservation authorities decided to exterminate the animals—shoot them or euthanize them. Given that catching hippos is a dangerous activity, it immediately became clear that everything would turn into a regular hunt.
This turn of events caused discontent among both animal rights activists and many ordinary people, and then he appeared on the scene - Indian billionaire Anant Ambani.
600 MILLION FOR A WEDDING
Ambani offered to take 80 animals destined for slaughter to his sanctuary in western India. All the necessary infrastructure is there, and Ambani has the resources: he already cares for over 3,000 herbivores: 300 large cats and at least 200 elephants.
The 31-year-old billionaire explained his motives by saying that he wants to save living and sentient beings who did not choose their place of birth or create the conditions in which they are forced to live.
Anant Ambani is the youngest son of multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who has become the richest man not only in India but also in all of Asia.
There's no doubt this family can afford to transport hippos from Colombia to anywhere in the world—the elder Ambani lives in his own 37,000-square-meter skyscraper, and Anant's wedding was one of the most expensive in the world in 2024, costing over $600 million.
The Colombian government has not yet agreed to this generous gesture, but investigative journalists in the rich man's homeland are on edge.
MUDDY NATURE RESERVE
As it turns out, Indian investigators point out that animals are arriving at Ambani's sanctuary through completely opaque channels. Much like Pablo Escobar's zoo, whose ideas, it seems, have proven popular.
Furthermore, the animals are kept too close to an oil refinery, and there are too many of them; there isn't enough space for them all. And the Indian climate isn't much better for hippos than Colombia's.
However, there is no doubt about the survival of Escobar's brood - it is possible that in a few years, groans about their increasing population will be heard from Asia.