Billionaire’s son offers to rehome Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos

The son of an Indian billionaire has said he will adopt Pablo Escobar’s infamous cocaine hippos to spare them from culling.

Anant Ambani, the son of Mukesh Ambani, estimated to be worth more than £70 billion, has asked the animals to be relocated to his animal centre.

The hippos have posed a problem for Colombia, where they became an invasive species after being brought to the country by the drug lord.

Escobar, dubbed the ‘King of Cocaine’, forged a zoo of kangaroos, zebras, and other exotic animals at his lavish estate, which became a tourist attraction after he died in 1993.

Many of the roaming hippos, which pose a danger to humans, might be killed, according to Colombian officials.

In a statement, Ambani said: ‘Vantara has the expertise, infrastructure and resolve to support this effort, entirely on Colombia’s terms.

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The Colombian Ministry of Environment began to sterilise them in 2023, but they had been living freely in rivers and reproducing without control.

Locals have branded the beasts as ‘aggressive’ and ‘unpredictable’, and said they ‘hide’ if they come across a member of the herd.

With no natural predators, they have been free to breed, rapidly increasing in number and reproducing more quickly than their African cousins while also stripping away the local vegetation.

Hippos eat up to 40kg of grass every day, which results in less food for native species like the capybara, the world’s largest rodent.

In addition, waste produced by the hippos can contain harmful bacteria and also overwhelm the local waterways with nutrients, leading to harmful algal blooms.

The country attempted a cull in 2009, but a graphic photo of well-known local hippo Pepe being shot caused outrage among locals and activists.

Authorities previously warned that, if left unchecked, hippo numbers could reach 1,000 by 2035.

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