Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was born on 1 December 1949, in Rionegro, in the Antioquia Department of Colombia.He was the third of seven children of the farmer Abel de Jesús Dari Escobar Echeverri (1910–2001), with his wife Hilda de Los Dolores Gaviria Berrío (d. 2006), an elementary school teacher. According to the BBC, hippos once owned by the late Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar have taken over the countryside near his former ranch in … But the hippos, of which Escobar was said to be particularly fond, were deemed too aggressive and dangerous to move. Why are Pablo Escobar's hippos flourishing in Colombia?
Given the marvels of Pablo Escobar’s 7,400-acre central Colombian hideaway, that was no small feat. The majority of the hippos still live inside Escobar's former estate, which was turned into a theme park in 2007, but the issue is that they can't keep them contained. Watch: See how a … Large wild hippos once owned by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar have become an invasive species whose waste is wreaking havoc on Colombia’s aquatic ecosystem. Since then, their numbers have grown to an estimated 80-100, and the giant herbivores have made their way into the country’s rivers.
When cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, the four hippos he brought to his private zoo in Colombia were left behind in a pond on his ranch. And when Pablo Escobar was killed, those hippos were left to be. Even at Hacienda Nápoles, the hippos stood out. However, Pablo’s four hippos (three females and one male) never left and they rapidly thrived in the ranch’s pond. In the 1980s, drug lord Pablo Escobar smuggled four hippos into Colombia for his personal zoo. Pablo Escobar's hippos keep multiplying 05:41 Fishing villages, small boats and children at play dot the landscape along the shallow waterways of Colombia's Magdalena River. They are the largest introduced species to be flourishing in the world. Pablo Escobar's Escaped Hippos Are Thriving in Colombia Can the dangerous animals be stopped from taking over more territory? A few facts about the most notorious drug kingpin ever, Pablo Escobar. A new study suggests that these hippos may be restoring 'lost' ecological processes not present since the Late Pleistocene era. Since then, their numbers have grown to an estimated 80-100, and the giant herbivores have made their way into the country’s rivers.
By the time of Pablo Escobar’s death, he was worth a known $30 billion, though he most likely had hidden assets that totaled more. He was so rich he even had his own zoo, complete with hippos.
And they estimate that there’s now between 80 and 100 of these animals. While the world knew him as a vicious, dangerous criminal, the residents of Medellin, Colombia thought of him as a successful and generous businessman. When Escobar's empire dissolved, his creatures were re-homed – all save the four hippopotamuses who proved too big a challenge to relocate. Save A hippo is seen at the Hacienda Napoles theme park, once the private zoo of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, in June Credit: AFP