Four hours east of Medellín in northern Colombia’s Puerto Triunfo municipality, the sprawling hacienda constructed by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar of “Narcos” fame has become a tourist attraction. When Escobar’s empire crashed, the exotic animals housed at his family’s zoo, including rhinos, giraffes and zebras, were safely relocated to new homes… except for the hippopotamuses.

With no safe or practical way to remove the animals, the original population of four hippos has since ballooned to more than 80, per the last estimate (background story here).

Now, scientists at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Colombia have provided the first scientific assessment of the impact the invasive animals are having on Colombian aquatic ecosystems. Their study is published in the journal Ecology.

Read more at University of California - San Diego

Image: Researchers in a two-year hippo impact project captured a variety of ecological data, including oxygen levels, water chemistry and audio soundscapes.  CREDIT: University of California - San Diego

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