DORADAL, Colombia—In a small town in central Colombia, the grunt of hippos has become part of the soundscape.
Every afternoon in Doradal, locals and tourists gather at a lake on the edge of town. They chat and drink beers as they watch the giant beasts floating in the water.
"This is one of the main attractions in town," says Lina Morales, a local hotel worker.
But this group of hippos—the only wild herd outside Africa—has also become a threat to people and the local environment, scientists argue.
A recent proposal by Colombia's government to cull the animals has sparked a new debate in the nation's decades-long hippo saga. It now also includes a counterproposal by an Indian billionaire who says he is willing to adopt up to 80 hippos and relocate them to his private wildlife reserve.
"I think we should address this technically," said Sergio Estrada-Villegas, a biology professor at Rosario University in Bogotá. "Maybe setting aside our feelings and thinking about the whole ecosystem."
The hippos are descendants of four animals brought illegally to Colombia in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar. The notorious drug lord kept a private zoo on a ranch near Doradal, where he also housed elephants, giraffes, and zebras.
But after the Colombian government seized Escobar's properties in 1993, no one captured the hippos. And because they lacked natural predators, their population exploded.
Scientists estimate there are now around 200 hippos roaming freely around Doradal, a town surrounded by lush forests and large rivers.
Some say the time has come to cull them. Biologist Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez explains that hippos deposit large amounts of waste in lakes and riverbeds, leading to drastic changes in water chemistry.
"Including changes in the pH and also less oxygen. So then all the plants that need oxygen in the water are going to collapse because of this," Castelblanco-Martinez says.
With fewer underwater plants, the local food chain suffers. "The hippos have a transversal impact on the ecosystem," Castelblanco-Martinez adds.
In Doradal, however, the animals have become a tourist attraction. Statues of hippos are displayed throughout the town.
"They are part of our community now," says business owner Tania Galindo. "There's no other place outside Africa with wild hippos."
Some locals now take visitors on hippo safaris, while others sell keyrings, T-shirts, and other souvenirs featuring the semi-aquatic mammals.
"Their population should be controlled," Galindo says. "But in a peaceful manner that respects their lives and the appreciation we have for them."
Colombia initially tried to curb the hippo population through sterilization—first with surgeries, then with contraceptive injections. But biologist Castelblanco-Martinez says the procedures are costly and risky, making large-scale sterilization difficult. She argues that culling is the most effective solution.
"And we do it with lionfish. You see it with camels in Australia," she says.
Now, Colombia's hippos may have been thrown a lifeline. Indian billionaire Anant Ambani has offered to relocate 80 hippos to his Vantara wildlife reserve in Gujarat, India.
"It would be a major undertaking for sure," said biology professor Estrada-Villegas. He remains skeptical of the billionaire's proposal.
"Depending on where they are, when they lure them and catch them, they would have to drive them in huge trucks and lorries to the Rio Negro airport near Medellín. And that is about 150 kilometers. So that, in itself, is no easy task," he says.
Then the hippos would have to be flown to India—a long journey that would require a stopover.
"And so, imagine what you would need to do to keep these animals safe and relaxed during this trip?" Estrada-Villegas adds.
German Jimenez, a biologist at Javeriana University who has published several papers on the hippos, says there is another challenge: how these wild animals would fare in Ambani's 14-square-kilometer reserve.
In the wild, each hippo requires roughly six square kilometers of habitat to sustain itself, Jimenez explains. That means hippos relocated to the Vantara reserve would likely be confined to much smaller spaces and become dependent on humans for food.
"If you put these animals near each other, you will need to practice some kind of chemical or physical castration in order to control aggressive behavior," Jimenez explains.
Colombia's government is currently reviewing the proposal from the billionaire, who plans to send a delegation from India to study the hippos and the terrain where they live.
The Colombian environment ministry has said the billionaire's proposal will, for now, only "complement" its broader plans to control the hippo population—plans that still include culling some animals.
That idea does not sit well with many residents of Doradal, who have grown used to living alongside the hippos and, in some cases, even take pride in them. Galindo said she hopes the government continues pursuing non-lethal solutions.
"Killing them should only be a last resort," she said. "These are healthy animals that did not choose to come here."
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