What big as drug trade reproduces itself like drug trade, adapts to environment like drug trade, threatens ecological balance and society like drug trade, is aggressive if prevented from growing at ease like drug trade, everyone knows it is there – like drug trafficking – but it is not easy to monitor, terminate or take measures that are not very debatable and socially and legally complex in the country or at the international level, as is the case with drug trafficking? Well, the hippos of the drug trade!
We’re talking about 200 hippos, nearly half of which are beautiful, film-like males, perfect for documentaries and always ready to reproduce, and a group of females who, unlike their African relatives, live in this lavish and generous Colombian countries find more reasons and peace of mind to practice motherhood as God intended and so populate this American country with fat babies who grow up and reproduce happily to continue the life cycle.
It all started in 1981 when the then capo de capos, Pablo Escobar Gaviria, brought four calves from zoos in the United States to his Hacienda Napoles (due to their small size, easy to transport to Colombia), to add to the fauna that would give life to his dream of having a zoo on the banks of the Great Magdalena River, on its way through the department of Antioquia. The male and the three females grew up happy and free. But with the fall of the kingpin, the confiscation of his belongings and the crisis to preserve the zoo, the hippos showed the true magnitude of the problem.
In 2008, the four were already 28 and it was predicted that in 10 years, that is, at the moment, it would be 100. And in that figure we go. What to do? That’s the big debate today among environmentalists, animal advocates, regional and national authorities, and academics. Forums, visits are taken, it is suggested to count around the area, supported by residents, fishermen and experts to be sure to know the dimensions of the challenge, and even sacrificing some of them is not ruled out as a last resort and satisfying to international legislation in this area.
The thing cannot be done in the wild. María Piedad Baptiste, associate researcher in the Biodiversity Sciences Program of the Humboldt Institute, an entity that provides a scientific basis for the decisions to be made by the Ministry of the Environment, points out that the monitoring committee has raised three technical points: the validation of the hippopotamus census in the country, to make a differential management based on the counted group of individuals. The other was to support the agencies in providing technical assistance, as was stated in his day to declare the species invasive, and later to provide support to the Ministry and the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Black and Nare ‘Cornare “River Basins, an environmental authority in the department of Antioquia, in its management plan”.
When he talks about driving, it’s not like taking a jack off the roof. Carlos Valderrama, a veterinarian and the one most involved with the hippos, was the architect of the Napolitano castration, an immense specimen on which they applied five arrows to put him to sleep, she hoisted him with a crane to are able to place him in the specially designed cage / operating room, in a task that lasted 12 hours, between catching, sedation, scalpel, cutting, sewing the harness of skin and fat and letting go.
“There are three options – says Valderrama -: repatriating them would be the ideal, we would all be happy, but it is no longer feasible because they all come from three females and the same male (‘The old man’, his name) , so genetic problems due to inbreeding would eventually affect the indigenous African population, which is genetically good and variable. These individuals do not contribute to the conservation of the species worldwide.
The second option, where they are in and where time is running out, is confinement. It is desirable, but it has limitations. “The first, due to animal welfare problems, a population without reproductive control cannot be confined, it would entail overpopulation, disease and biological risks,” explains Valderrama. It would also mean that there is enough space for animals up to five tons, which can easily break through barriers, requiring expensive investment.
In 2009 that was the recommendation, but at a snail’s pace the authorities did nothing. Then some escaped, due to fighting between men and that was the demographic boom. The risks to the fisherman populations began to become apparent, in addition to the onset of their impact on the region’s ecosystems, which are not designed to support the burden of these animals, without predators, eating grass and more, in addition to cooling off in the rivers and wetlands of the region. As a South African expert who came to analyze the case said, “This is heaven for hippos” and recommended the route of sacrificing some and neutering others, as a control method without achieving total sacrifice.
Effects on the ecosystem
What looks so good in Colombia’s African savannas is a disaster for the ecosystem, which also doesn’t have animals weighing more than half the weight of a hippopotamus. Their territorial behavior also causes them to move and colonize without God or law, threatening manatees and alligators using the same ecosystems. “What should be most important to us is the impact on the environment,” says Valderrama. “While they have a social impact on the fishermen they persecute and affect them economically, it’s mostly about the environment.”
Recent studies show that the amounts of feces and oxygen consumption in the area show lower levels due to feces and urine, altering sedimentation and in all a remarkable impact. “In Africa, this organic waste is important because it fertilizes and its presence in the dunes serves to keep the water channels alive as they bury in the mud and help keep the system clear. They are ecological engines, but in Colombia they produce the opposite effect, ”explains Carlos Valderrama.
KNOWING MORE
We’re talking about 200 hippos, nearly half of which are beautiful males, always ready to breed, and a group of females who find more peace in these lush Colombian lands to practice motherhood as God intended.