Why are there hippos in Colombia?
Today, we are talking about that rarest of all the hippos species. No, not the pygmy hippo…but, the South American hippo! Wait, what? There’s no crying in baseball and no hippos in South America! Right?! Well, catch up with the times, my friends. Indeed, roughly 80 Nile hippos are living happily in Colombia. These guys give a whole new perspective on the term “feral hog.”
Are you wondering how this happened yet? Well, 25 or 30 years ago, a prominent and affluent citizen was apprehended and jailed. Subsequently, authorities took over his property and confiscated his things, however, they apparently failed to appropriately confiscate 4 adult Nile hippos. The hippos then found water, as hippos will do, and set up camp! Fast forward to today and there you have it, hippos in South America.
So many interesting possibilities jumps to the forefront. For example, do the hippos ever encounter river dolphins? I bet that is a funny exchange between a couple of hippos? Furthermore, I do feel a little bit bad for the enterprising anaconda who takes a bite of that back hippo foot, thinking that maybe they have a lame deer or a good size crocodilian. Then, once the anaconda attempts to constrict the creature…well, there may not be enough anaconda and the situation quickly deteriorates for the confused reptile!
The even more interesting component of this story is the behavior of the humans! The locals do NOT want the hippos removed despite the, ahem, large impact of hippo feces on the river ecosystem. It turns out that hippos that used to belong to high-profile narcotics kingpins are a great tourist draw for the area. It just goes to show you, even a hippo can be a success story given the right perspective.
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