As night falls over the small village of Doradal in central Colombia, the heavy thudding of hippos weighing over 1.3 tons breaks the silence as they lumber through gardens, schoolyards, and across porches.

"They have changed our way of life," said fisherman Giovanny Contreras, 48, as he steered his boat past the protruding eyes of a male hippo staring at the vessel.

Hippos soak in a pond at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, on 4/2/2021. Photo: AP

Hippos soak in a pond at Hacienda Napoles Park, once the estate of drug lord Pablo Escobar in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, on 4/2/2021. Photo: AP

Thousands of kilometers from their native Africa, hippos are rapidly multiplying in central Colombia, taking over ponds and encroaching deeper into the lives of Colombian communities near the Magdalena River.

This situation began with a drug lord's whim. At the height of his power, Pablo Escobar purchased thousands of hectares in Doradal to create a resort. He dug dozens of artificial lakes, built a Mediterranean-style mansion, a private airstrip, and a bullring. Escobar also smuggled many exotic animals into Colombia, including elephants, giraffes, camels, rhinoceroses, kangaroos, ostriches, and deer, in addition to four hippos.

"All the animals had dedicated feeding troughs," said Jose Conrado Montoya Toro, 85, who was hired as Escobar's zoo caretaker in the 1980s. "When the vegetable truck arrived, there was cabbage, carrots, and lettuce for all the animals."

The Hacienda Napoles estate fell into disrepair after police killed Escobar. Most animals on the estate were moved to zoos, but the hippos were abandoned, escaping and reproducing beyond the estate grounds.

Free in the lush Colombian countryside, these mammals did what they do best: lazily soaking in water, grazing, and reproducing. Their population has grown to 200 and could reach 1,000 by 2035, threatening Colombia's ecosystem.

Hippos, originating from Africa, are classified as an invasive species in Colombia. The government wants to donate them to countries worldwide, but few are willing to accept them. Veterinarians have tried to neuter them, but the work is dangerous, requiring eight people to coordinate trapping, anesthetizing, and operating on each animal.

In April, Colombian authorities announced a 2 million USD plan to reduce the hippo population by humanely culling 80 animals, while continuing to relocate the rest. They could be euthanized with chemicals or shot in the head and buried on site.

This plan immediately sparked controversy. Some experts argue that without natural predators in Colombia, hippos will displace native species and must be eliminated, while animal rights groups object. An Indian billionaire has offered to adopt 80 hippos, but the feasibility of transportation remains unclear.

Hippos in the Hacienda Napoles zoo on 12/9/2020. Photo: AFP

Hippos in the Hacienda Napoles zoo on 12/9/2020. Photo: AFP

The culling plan has divided Doradal, where the only wild hippo population outside Africa has shaped the town's identity and attracted tourists.

"Personally, I feel conflicted. I am aware that they have to remove or relocate them, but they are just animals, animals not at fault for Pablo Escobar's decisions," shared Samy Castano, 35, whose house faces a hippo-filled pond. He criticized the Colombian government for not acting decisively years ago.

"I don't want them to kill them!" interrupted his 11-year-old daughter, Luciana, recounting how a hippo once tried to poke its head through their living room window while she watched television.

Hippos, the largest terrestrial mammals after elephants and rhinoceroses, are territorial by nature, can run faster than humans, and have killed people in Africa.

In 2020, a hippo attacked a farmer drawing water from a pond, breaking his ribs and nearly killing him. In 2023, a driver on the highway crashed into a hippo; the collision killed the hippo, but the driver escaped unharmed. Experts warn that a human fatality from a hippo encounter is only a matter of time.

"As hippo encroachment accelerates, the likelihood of accidents will be higher. No invasive animal in the world is so large," said Katherine Corrales, an expert from the government environmental agency in Boyaca.

The Colombian government has transformed Hacienda Napoles into a privately managed amusement park with water slides and a zoo. Villagers earn money by offering hippo-watching tours or selling hippo-themed souvenirs.

Visitors can observe wild hippos on the former estate's lakes from observation decks. They can feed carrots to the park's two captive hippos, Paco and Juaco.

"They are not animals you can see everyday," said Henri Samil Perez, a zoo caretaker, as he warned families to watch their children carefully so they do not climb into the enclosure. "Having them here is a privilege for us."

Hippo keychains in a souvenir shop near Hacienda Napoles Park in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, on 11/2/2020. Photo: AP

Hippo keychains in a souvenir shop near Hacienda Napoles Park in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia, on 11/2/2020. Photo: AP

Meanwhile, Contreras eagerly awaits the authorities to implement the culling plan. He has almost entirely stopped going to the river after dark, abandoning his nighttime fishing trips. With their large bodies submerged, hippos become invisible under the moonlight.

Fishermen dread accidentally paddling their boats past these "muscle rocks" submerged underwater, or worse, inadvertently provoking an aggressive male protecting its territory. A hippo can destroy a boat hull with one head toss.

"Instead of thinking so much about the lives of animals, why don't they think about the suffering of fishermen and the poor living along the river?" he said.