PUERTO TRIUNFO, Colombia — Along the Magdalena River, one of Colombia’s primary arteries, fishermen move with wary precision. From the silty, tea-colored current, hippopotamuses can surface without warning, closing the distance to a vessel in a single heartbeat.
“These hippos are a true nightmare,” said fisherman Wilinton Sánchez about the semi-aquatic animals capable of charging at speeds of up to 5 mph in water and 18 mph on land. “We were out Saturday when one lunged … reared up and swung its jaws wide. If it ever gets hold of you, it’ll tear you to pieces.”
The animals also draw fascination.
Several afternoons a week, boats filled with Colombian and foreign tourists arrive to scan the shoreline waiting for signs in the murky water. Even these “hippo-watching” outings can occasionally end in screams as the animals close the distance with terrifying speed, but they also bring needed business to the community.
The hippos, an invasive species in Colombia, are part of a population of 200 that continues to reproduce unchecked. They are the offspring of animals illegally brought to the country in the 1980s by the late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar for his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles — a sprawling valley estate that featured a private airstrip and served as his secluded fortress.
‘They are Colombian’
Colombia’s Environment Ministry has warned that the country’s hippo population will exceed 500 by 2030 without intervention. To prevent this, officials recently approved a plan to euthanize approximately 80 hippos starting in the latter half of the year.
The measure has ignited a fierce debate. Scientists advocating for euthanasia have faced death threats, while animal welfare activists decry the plan as “murder.” Meanwhile, many residents of Puerto Triunfo, a town 120 miles from the capital, Bogotá, fear that losing the animals will destroy the tourism that sustains their community.
Diana Hincapié pauses her work at a Puerto Triunfo restaurant, taking a seat to chat beside a mural of a female hippopotamus and her calf.
“We don’t want to see a dead hippopotamus. They aren’t African anymore; they are Colombian, born and bred here for over 30 years,” said the 48-year-old business owner, noting she is ready to take to the streets in protest if the euthanasia plan proceeds.
Her restaurant, situated on the banks of the Cocorná Sur River — a tributary of the Magdalena — draws nearly 200 tourists a month. Most come specifically for the hippos, and Hincapié fears that the government’s plan would decimate the area’s tourism.
Confinement, transfer or death
As one of the largest terrestrial mammals on Earth, hippopotamuses have now spread across approximately 43,000 square kilometers (16,600 square miles), according to Environment Ministry estimates.
With no natural predators and a stable, drought-free climate — a stark departure from their native Africa — the animals found a sanctuary on the “Island of Silence,” a vegetation-covered river island that has become the heart of their expanding colony.
Álvaro Molina, 61, who lives on the riverbank opposite the island, recalls that the first pair arrived roughly 11 years ago. Since then, the population has surged. “One night I saw 12 at once, but I understand they have been migrating,” the fisherman says.
Encounters on the river are so frequent that Molina now takes them for granted every time he goes fishing — especially at dusk. A few years ago, his boat ended up right on top of two hippos which, startled, capsized the vessel. The fisherman managed to swim to another barge without injury.
“Whether they are killed or taken away, it does us a favor,” Molina said, noting that the hippos have crippled the local fishing industry because so many people have abandoned it out of fear.
The government’s control plan includes confinement, a move supported by Puerto Triunfo residents, transfers to international sanctuaries or zoos and euthanasia, a last resort reserved for cases where non-lethal alternatives prove unfeasible.
Mammals in limbo
In Africa, these large-bodied herbivores that move constantly between the water and the land “can significantly impact the structure of ecosystems,” said Daniel Cadena, dean of the faculty of sciences at the University of the Andes, who advocates for the implementation of a mixed control strategy — including euthanasia.
But euthanasia is not necessarily easy. According to the official protocol, the animals may receive a lethal injection after being lured with food into a corral and immobilized. Alternatively, they may be shot with long-range hunting rifles, but the weapons need to be high-powered because hippopotamus skin is famously thick and difficult to penetrate.
Sen. Andrea Padilla has urged the government to prioritize relocation over killing.
“It is an extermination; it is a massacre of 80 individuals,” Padilla said. “This is a legacy left to us by a drug trafficker. How can we possibly close this chapter in the exact same way — by shooting the hippos?”
Relocating the animals to other countries has failed to gain traction.
Despite initial interest, the Environment Ministry said that no country has committed to the transfer. Potential hosts have been deterred either by the high costs of receiving the massive mammals or by legal bans on importing invasive species.
