Driver films dead hippo after being hit on Colombian road
A hippopotamus died after being hit by a car this Tuesday night on Colombia’s BogotáMedellín highway, where these animals, an unusual legacy of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, are considered an invasive species, according to fire departments.
The animal, weighing more than 1 ton, was lying on the road, near a farm belonging to Escobar, who, according to the commander of the Escobar Municipality Fire Brigade, was killed in December 1993 in a shootout with the police of Puerto Triunfo (Northwest), Maria Magdalena Pérez .
Escobar installed a small herd of hippos on his farm in the late 1980s. The front end of the vehicle involved in the accident, a Renault Duster, was destroyed. “There was only one boy [no carro]is unharmed,” said Pérez.
Firefighters were responding to another car crash caused by one of these African mammals in December. This hippopotamus survived and fled the area.
Front of the car was destroyed
After Escobar’s death, the animals were abandoned and over the years populated the Magdalena Medio region a warm savannah crisscrossed by rivers and swamps until they became a herd of nearly 150 hippos.
A driver who drove past the scene of the crime shortly after the hitandrun filmed it with his cell phone. The pictures show the already dead animal lying on the asphalt. The Duster with its badly damaged front can also be seen.
Regard:
The Colombian environment ministry last year declared hippos an invasive species, paving the way for eventual hunting. Experts warn that their outofcontrol reproduction poses a threat to local populations and fauna.
In March, the governor of the department of Antioquia — where Puerto Triunfo is located — announced a plan to move almost half of the animals to sanctuaries in Mexico and India.
The operation would cost US$3.5 million (almost R$20 million) and would involve transporting the hippos nearly 150 kilometers overland to the nearest international airport.