SUVs Are Even Killing Pablo Escobar’s Hippo Now

You know what it’s like when you’re driving down the highway and an animal jumps out in front of your car. You slam on the anchors or swerve out of the way of a fox, loose cat or other four-legged friend. Now just imagine the shock of a driver in Colombia who had to do just that — but to avoid a hippo. And not just any hippo, but Pablo Escobar’s hippo.

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The hippo in question was the descendant of a thunder of hippo that was introduced into Colombia by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the early 1980s. The Medellín Cartel leader shipped the animals from their native Africa to Colombia where they were housed at his private zoo at Hacienda Nápoles.

But since their introduction to the country 40 years ago, the animals have run wild and now number more than 130. It’s gotten so bad that the hippo are now deemed an invasive species in the country, and environmental experts warn that they could soon number 400. That’s because the hippo have no natural predators in Columbia and are free to roam and reproduce wherever they like.

This hippo is scoping out its next victim. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP (Getty Images)

Now, the thunder of hippo in Colombia is finally facing a predator: the SUV. According to The Associated Press, one of Escobar’s hippo was killed this week after it was hit by an SUV on the highway. The site reports:

“A hippopotamus descended from animals illegally brought to Colombia by the late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar has died in a collision with an SUV on a highway near Escobar’s hacienda, environmental authorities said Wednesday.”

Despite crashing with an animal that can weigh up to 4,000 pounds, the occupants of the SUV walked away from the crash unharmed. The hippo, however, “died immediately afterward and was removed to be analyzed,” The AP reports.

A vicious killer in the making. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP (Getty Images)

David Echeverri López, a biologist at local environment authority Cornare, told The AP that the animals were now “a danger to people” as their numbers swelled. “Hippos are unpredictable, at any moment they can attack a person,” he told the news agency.

If you want further proof that hippo are, in fact, utterly terrifying and not “very chill” as our own Steve DaSilva describes them, you should check out this horrible account of a person that was swallowed by hippo.