Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his private menagerie in 1981. He was killed in 1993, the property was abandoned, and the hippos escaped into the Magdalena River. They have been multiplying ever since. Colombia now has roughly 170 -- the largest invasive hippo population in the world. On April 13, the Environment Ministry approved euthanizing up to 80. An Antioquia judge then suspended the order. And on Monday, Indian billionaire Anant Ambani offered to take all 80 to his sanctuary in Gujarat.

1. Cull Them, The Window Is Closing (Min. Velez, Castelblanco-Martinez, Echeverri)

The math is brutal. 170 becomes 500 by 2030 if no one acts. Sterilization is too slow, relocation has been tried for years, and the manatees and river turtles are running out of time.

Sterilization can't keep up with the math. Cornare's David Echeverri, who's run the sterilization program since late 2023, has been blunt: there's no single measure that stops them reproducing. Each procedure costs about $10,000 and requires a crane. Meanwhile Minister Irene Velez says the population hits 500 by 2030 if nothing else changes. Conservation biologist Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez, whose 2021 model is the basis for that projection, has received death threats over her research.

Seven countries already said no to relocation. That's not for lack of trying. The hippos defecate in the Magdalena, which threatens the West Indian manatee and the critically endangered Magdalena River turtle. The 2022 invasive-species declaration was supposed to clear the legal path for lethal control. The April 13 decision was the first time the government actually pulled the trigger. Then the judge stopped it.

2. Save Them, Vantara Will Take Them (Anant Ambani, Antioquia judge)

A country emerging from decades of armed conflict should not solve problems with violence. Especially when an Indian billionaire is offering full transport, vet care, and lifetime housing.

Relocation finally has a backer big enough to make it work. Anant Ambani -- Reliance Industries director and founder of the Vantara sanctuary in Jamnagar -- wrote to Minister Velez offering veterinary leadership, biosecurity, transport, and lifelong care for all 80 hippos. Vantara already houses 150,000 animals across 2,000 species. The sanctuary says it's fully available to talk to President Petro's government. None of the seven previous countries offered anything close.

Lethal removal of sentient animals should be the last option, not the first. That's the constitutional argument an Antioquia judge cited in the tutela that suspended the cull, especially now that Vantara is on the table. Animal-welfare groups have argued for years that solving problems with violence is a bad signal from a country still healing from decades of armed conflict. That argument now has international funding behind it.

3. They Belong Now (Jonathan Shurin, Doradal residents)

The hippos may be filling an ecological niche left empty 12,000 years ago. The town economy is built on them. Killing 80 destroys both.

The hippos may actually be helping the ecosystem. UC San Diego ecologist Jonathan Shurin made the rewilding case in a 2020 paper in the journal Ecology, which found no clear negative effects on native fish and signs of enhanced ecosystem productivity. The hippos may be functionally replacing Neochoerus pinckneyi, a giant capybara that vanished 12,000 years ago in South America's late-Pleistocene die-off. From this angle, what Colombia has isn't an invasion. It's an accidental rewilding experiment with potentially useful results.

The Doradal economy runs on the hippos. Hacienda Napoles is now a theme park run by the municipality and a private operator -- one of the region's biggest employers. Children play on hippo statues in town. Tour operators sell hippo-spotting trips. Yes, hippos have wandered into a schoolyard. Yes, one knocked a fisherman into the river. But the local read isn't disaster. It's coexistence, plus a tourism economy that didn't exist 30 years ago.

Where This Lands

Where this lands depends on whether the Antioquia judge's suspension holds long enough for Petro's government to negotiate the Vantara transfer, on whether the logistics actually work -- moving 80 hippos halfway around the world is not a small operation -- and on whether the population growth curve gives any plan time to play out. The most invasive descendants of a drug lord in the world are still in the river. Three governments, an Indian billionaire, a UCSD ecologist, and a fisherman in Doradal all have a different idea about what should happen next.

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