Death sentence reprieve for drug lord’s fugitive hippo
Colombia has lifted a “death sentence” on a fugitive hippopotamus and her calf once owned by notorious cocaine baron Pablo Escobar – but the reprieve came too late for another of the animals, shot dead by bounty hunters (pictured above).
Authorities accepted an offer from Colombian beer company Bavaria to care for Matilda and the calf – born while Matilda and her mate, Pepe, were on the run – following outrage when pictures of Pepe with fatal gunshot wounds were released last week.
“We have accepted Bavaria’s offer. The hunt is off,” a spokeswoman for Colombia’s Environment Ministry told the Reuters.
Escobar imported the hippos from Africa during the 1980s when he he was at the height of his powers, controlling most of the world’s cocaine supply and building a luxurious hacienda complete with private zoo near Medellin, the base of his drug smuggling empire.
But the zoo fell into disrepair after Escobar died in a rooftop shootout with police in Medellin. In 2006 the two hippos broke out and disappeared into the wild.
Because of safety concerns, Colombia’s government ordered the animals to be hunted and killed. But Bavaria has offered to fly in wildlife experts from Tanzania to find and care for the surviving hippos.
Around two dozen of the creatures are still living at the site of Escobar’s former hacienda. Watch more on Escobar’s private zoo below.