Colombia will cull some of the 166 hippos descended from a small herd imported by deceased drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s, the country's environment minister said Thursday.
Authorities have tried various approaches to curb the population explosion along the Magdalena River, including sterilization and transferring individuals to zoos abroad.
After cocaine baron Escobar was killed in a 1993 shootout with police, the animals he had imported for a private zoo were left to roam freely in a hot savanna region of Antioquia criss-crossed by rivers, marshes and swamps with abundant hippo food. Experts warn the mammals' uncontrolled reproduction poses a threat to the local human population and to wildlife.Fishing communities along the Magdalena River have come under attack and some hippos invaded a school yard, though no-one has died in such confrontations.