You're Pablo Escobar world-renowned drug kingpin seventh richest man in the world
DEA is most-wanted trying to relax on a Saturday afternoon what do you do well
Netflix wouldn't be around for a few more years and the Xbox hadn't yet been
developed so what are you supposed to do with all your free time
well why not play with some hippos yep that's exactly what he did
if you liked the video don't forget to subscribe and let's jump in in the early
1980s Pablo Escobar was the leader of the
Medellin Cartel dubbed the king of cocaine the cartel pulled in more than
70 million dollars a day totaling more than 22 billion a year
if the Medellin Cartel was a company today that would put them just outside
of the top 500 largest companies in the world by revenue and then ninth largest
in South America but what do you do with all your wealth when you're one of the
world's most wanted men well you can't access most banks or
financial markets without getting your assets seized by the Americans and there
are only so many Colombian companies you can buy at their height the midian
cartel was spending twenty five hundred a month on rubber bands just to keep
their cash bundled together and each year they lost more than two billion
dollars to hungry rats nibbling on the bills they have to hide throughout
Colombia again since they couldn't keep most of it in banks at a certain point
you just have to start spending money on random things otherwise the rats will
just have more to eat so Escobar's decided to take one of his
mansions east of Medellin and make the largest private zoo on the planet he
imported many animals from giraffes two rhinos two zebras and yes even some
hippos although there were some logistical challenges to importing
hippos for starters their native homeland was some 5000 miles and an
ocean away not to mention they can weigh up to five tons and every year kill more
humans than any other mammal except for people I guess
but Escobar was determined to make it happen luckily for him his
side business taught him a lot about smuggling things across borders and he
was able to see four hippos from California into the country over the
years Escobar enjoyed a zoo and the hippos reportedly became his favorite
animal after Escobar's death in 1993 the
Colombian government quickly seized his assets when they came across the zoo
they began distributing the animals they found to other zoos across the country
except for the Rhinos and hippos which they decided were too big and expensive
to transport and so they released them into the surrounding swampland the
Rhinos which weren't as good at living in the Colombian wilderness quickly died
out but the hippos started thriving without the big cats and hyenas that
preyed upon them in Africa their population grew and seemingly opposed to
the fight fire with fire mentality government officials didn't bring these
apex predators to Colombia to keep the hippo populations in check it might seem
strange that the government decided to release these apex predators into the
wilderness but back in the 1990's invasive species and the effects that
can have on an ecosystem weren't as well understood as they are today and
honestly they probably didn't think the hippos would survive very long so far
from their natural habitat today we know that invasive species can have an
enormous effect on the ecosystems they encounter overall invasive species like
the cane toad in Australia and Asian carp in the u.s. caused more than a
hundred billion dollars in damages every year by killing native species eating
crops damaging infrastructure and growing uncontrollably without their
natural predators and Pablos hippos haven't turned out any different
a hippo eats more than 80 pounds of food a day depleting resources from many
native species like Colombia's native catfish and the endangered Amazonian
manatee since they were first released the hippo population in Colombia has
grown rapidly and now since out more than 50 from the original four just a
few decades ago with them tearing up the ecosystem and threatening the lives of
the now many tourists who have started to come see them how does one solve the
hippo problem well the easiest answer would be for the government to deal with
the hippos the same way they dealt with Escobar
but in 2009 after hunters acting on government orders shot Pepe
one of Escobar's original hippos holy was rampaging through nearby farmland
animal rights activists sued the government this led to a court ruling
prohibiting hunting the hippos with their enormous upkeep costs remember
each one needs 80 pounds of food a day no local zoos want them the next obvious
solution is to neuter them the hippos will still be alive but they won't be
able to father any offspring so it just turns into a long waiting game a pretty
long one but as you can imagine doing work down there isn't easy when the down
there is attached to a 6,000 pound human eating machine so neutering a hippo
requires getting it away from the other hippos tranquilizing it and then
operating and all of these logistics aren't cheap with local authorities
strapped for cash by the time they neuter one five more are born and
sending them back to Africa isn't an option either as you can imagine going
from four to fifty required a lot of inbreeding and officials aren't sure how
their genes would affect the already delicate African hearts their last
option authorities are currently trying to develop a birth control compatible
for hippos but so far this hasn't amounted to anything in those same
animal rights groups that block their hunting probably won't like putting them
on the pill stories like these are why in recent years governments have been
putting increasing restrictions on transporting foods and animals across
borders but as global markets become ever more connected
it seems invasive species are inevitable after all it only takes a few slipping
through the cracks to cause big problems a perfect example happened in Australia
in 1857 when a handful of European rabbits were released into the wild for
hunting before ballooning into more than 600 million a century later even with
costly measures taken in the last few decades their population still sits at
around 100 million today only time will tell what will happen to escobar's
hippos but for now this is where our story ends I hope you liked the video
and if you did consider watching the one tagged in the outro
have a great day and remember there's always more to learn