Descendants of Escobar’s hippos live to see another day

With the cocaine trade booming in the 1980s, Escobar decided to create a zoo at his Hacienda Nápoles akin to the one at Hearst Castle in California during the first half of the 20th century. The drug kingpin imported all kinds of animals from Africa, including hippos, zebras, and even an ostrich. However, after Escobar was killed in 1993, the hippos’ offspring were left to run wild, hurting the local ecosystem. There are now roughly 200 of them in Colombia. In a bid to limit the numbers, Colombia’s environment minister planned to slaughter at least 80 of them, but a scion of Asia’s richest family, Anant Ambani, has offered to give them refuge at his wildlife sanctuary in India.