- 7 weeks ago
The Problem with Pablo Escobar's Hippos (it’s worse than you think)
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00:00Imagine you're the world's most powerful criminal. You have literally an infinite amount of money
00:06where your wildest and most illegal dreams could come true. If that were you, what would you do?
00:12Turns out, it's Jurassic Park. Welcome to Hacienda Napoles, the former 7,000-acre estate of Pablo
00:21Escobar and the current scene of an environmental catastrophe that's been spanning over three
00:27decades. Today, this park doubles as a theme park for children and also a maximum security prison
00:38for adults. But wait, there's more. There are currently today over 200 wild hippos roaming
00:46this area of Colombia. They are killing everything in their path, they're attacking fishermen, and no
00:53one can figure out what to do. So I came all the way to Colombia to investigate and see what
01:00we can
01:00find. Honestly, I didn't personally understand the extent of Pablo Escobar's narco empire until I
01:06started learning the history. He was responsible for around 4,000 deaths, making Colombia the murder
01:13capital of the world. He was moving roughly 30,000 pounds of cocaine to the U.S. every single day.
01:19The cartel had so much cash flowing in, it lost about 10% of its annual income just from the
01:26money
01:27rotting away, destroyed by rats, rain, and lack of storage. His fortune hit an estimated 30 to 35
01:34billion dollars, putting him among the 10 richest people alive and earning up to 100 million dollars
01:41a day. He used some of this drug money to fund Hacienda Nápoles and his private zoo complete with
01:48over 200 animals ranging from draughts to elephants to rhinos and four forgotten hippos. And the country
01:55of Colombia has been attempting to recover from the mess the cartel has left behind for decades. And
02:01nowhere is that more apparent than in Medellin, Colombia. Back in the 80s and 90s, this was considered
02:07one of the most dangerous cities in the entire world. But flash forward to today and it's considered
02:13one of the most epic transformation stories in all of Latin America. There's no way to fully understand
02:20Pablo Escobar's story without coming to Medellin. But even here at what was once the epicenter of this
02:27narco story, most reminders of that dark chapter have thankfully disappeared. Unless you know where to look.
02:35We're now crawling inside what was originally a bunker where Pablo Escobar was hiding
02:43all of his gold and cash. This is an original tunnel that was built underneath the stash house.
02:52This is crazy. This museum oddly felt more like a shrine than a history lesson, but thankfully there's
02:58so much more to this city than one man's legacy. I just checked into the Charlie in Poblaro, which is
03:04by far my favorite area of the city. It's so green and lush and this hotel room is absolutely massive,
03:12but my favorite part are the hotel's views. I mean, look at this place. It's so gorgeous and I feel
03:19so
03:20immersed in the city here. Jamie, what's on the agenda today? Today we are going to Comuna Trece,
03:28which is an incredibly historic place where 30 plus years ago was one of the most dangerous
03:35neighborhoods in the world. Today it's turned into a vibrant hub of art and culture and it really shows
03:41how a city can transform. So it's very exciting and it's very relevant. I mean, the hippos that this
03:49whole video is about came from all of those problems that these communities face. It's absolutely packed.
03:55So many visitors, locals. Immediately you're just hit with so much energy.
04:11Maraco mango. Ah, perfect. Thank you. What is the liquid underneath? It's with salt.
04:18It's salt? Yeah. Whoa. Traditional mango passion fruit ice cream. It's hot out,
04:27especially climbing all these stairs, so. Whoa.
04:36It's so salty. Feels like it's like an electrolyte. This might be my new favorite part of the city,
04:42because it just feels so alive. Truly. As fun as it is to explore Medellin today, I couldn't help but
04:50think about how incredibly different life was here not that long ago. I wanted to hear what it was
04:57actually like from someone who had experienced it firsthand. Luckily, one of my friends introduced
05:02me to their mom, Claudia, who served as a police officer in Medellin for over 26 years during some
05:10of the city's most violent decades.
05:12I don't know. In the time of Pablo Escobar, the people who were in the city were afraid to come
05:17to the city,
05:18because it was the time when they killed policemen. I have friends, friends, who were
05:29persecuted in the hands of the park. There are some people that look up to Escobar or glorify him.
05:37I'm curious what your thoughts are on people who see any kind of good and what he contributed to the
05:44city.
05:44Ay, eso es muy complejo. Pablo Escobar fue un narco. Eso no lo puede negar nadie. Mandó a matar policías,
05:52puso carrobombas, donde cayó gente. Todo el mundo era inocente. Entonces, acá en Medellín hay un barrio
05:59que él construyó. Entonces, me imagino que la gente que se vio beneficiada de alguna manera, pues tiene
06:08afecto, cariño. No es una persona, o sea, no es un orgullo. Si hay alguien que quiere ser como Pablo
06:14Escobar, está mal.
06:15It's been so inspiring to see how much Medellín has changed. And I'm curious what you think that that is
06:23from, like what caused Medellín to be able to overcome so much adversity, so much pain, so much trauma from
06:31the cartel days. What do you think caused that change?
06:36Creo que Medellín es una ciudad de gente amable, de gente resiliente, de gente que recibe
06:44super bien al que viene de afuera. Y sabes que también creo que aquí contamos líderes y dirigentes
06:52que se han preocupado también por invertir en seguridad, por invertir en educación, por crear oportunidades.
07:01It's always with open arms, everybody.
07:03It's crazy because I literally feel like I'm experiencing that right now from like you picking
07:07me up at the airport and you introducing me to your mom and you wanting to sit down and have
07:12this conversation. It's felt like I've been so welcome the entire time.
07:18I honestly couldn't think of a more ideal traditional experience. There's horses roaming
07:25through and performing at this restaurant. It's called a traditional fonda. Oh my god.
07:30Wait a second. There's a horse climbing stairs. There's meat on the barbecue. Traditional Antiochian food.
07:40Wow. This was huge. Oh my god. Wow. So we got chorizo, blood sausage, chicharron, plantain, ground beef,
07:50rice, fried egg, and avocado. We're constructing the perfect bite over here. A little rice, a little sausage and the
07:57beans. Perfect combination.
07:59No matter where I travel in the world, I always come away remembering the people more than the places.
08:04And before leaving Medellin, there was one final stop I needed to make. Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993,
08:12bringing one of the darkest chapters in Colombia's history to an end. And more than 30 years later,
08:18we decided to visit his final resting place. About five minutes ago, I just had this sudden wave of
08:29intensely tragic emotions hit me. And I was doing my best to keep myself composed. I can't help but just
08:38feel
08:39feel it's some remnant of the pain that's been caused by someone that's here.
08:50Pablo, the brother of Pablo, his brother of Pablo, the lemon, alias Cítrico, is here buried.
08:57And he is the father of Pablo Escobar, who is here.
09:00Do you know Pablo and the family in person?
09:03Yes.
09:04Do you know the family well?
09:06Yes, I know the whole family of Escobar.
09:08Do you work here every day?
09:10Yo me mantengo aquí, yo le aguaceo, le pongo flores, se lo organizo, le cuento las historias a la gente.
09:15¿Y todos los días?
09:16Todos los días.
09:17Yo me llamo Miguel.
09:18Mucho gusto.
09:20Lexi, nice to meet you.
09:23Like, I was not expecting to come to the gravesite and actually have a conversation with someone who knew
09:31Pablo personally.
09:33At least says he did.
09:34I mean, yeah, potentially.
09:35Standing here at Pablo Escobar's grave, I think it's actually undeniable how much of a negative impact
09:42that Escobar had on the city of Medellín and Colombia as a whole.
09:47But thankfully, this is an incredible redemption story because of how resilient the Colombian people
09:53are. While I do think that they've done an incredible job reversing the impact that Escobar had on
10:00their society, there is still one issue that persists even after all these decades,
10:06and that's Pablo Escobar's hippos.
10:09And now, to better understand what the future of this story is going to be,
10:13I want to go meet the people who are actually tasked with fixing it.
10:20Today, we're heading to a local fisherman's house for lunch where I'm meeting up with the Cornare team.
10:26This is the government environmental agency that's responsible for managing Colombia's invasive hippo
10:32crisis. Before heading out on the river, I want to try to understand how all of this happened in the
10:38first place. How long have you and how long has Cornare been trying to deal with these hippos?
10:44A lot of years. When I was working, Pepe was killed. Pepe was the first hippo that had been killed.
10:54But that time, we don't know anything about hippos. The director was, ah, we have a biologist?
11:03Let's send him. Oh, you are the biologist that they called?
11:09That's good. Divi down here. We're gonna go figure it out.
11:13We have a biologist. Just put them, put him.
11:17So were you one of the first people to kind of try to figure out what was happening with the
11:21hippos?
11:21In Cornare, yes. Okay, interesting. It almost feels like these hippos escaped,
11:27and nobody even really thought much of it. That's an interesting question,
11:31because after the Colombian state take all of the properties and all the animals,
11:37they forgot the hippos. They never imagined that that would be a problem in the years.
11:46But this time, this place was involved in a terrifying situation with violence,
11:54with the guerrillas, and the group, the paramilitary groups, and...
12:00Maybe the hippos were the last things on their minds because of what was happening with the
12:05contests? And the years pass, hippos, hippos reproduce. In Colombian, there is a lot of problems,
12:14and hippos... So one, when... We're like at the bottom of the list of problems.
12:20Seeing the way that this family lives alongside all of the animals here felt like something out
12:25of a storybook. Their home sits right at the edge of the river, and even a wild capybata roams
12:30through their yard. But that same closeness to nature means that they're arguably living with the
12:37world's most dangerous invasive species population right at their doorstep.
12:42It seems like a lot has changed because of the hippos. How much has that affected your work,
12:50and your way of life?
12:51No lo hablo por mi, lo hablo por todo el gremio pesquero. A todos nos ha afectado mucho,
12:57y ha cambiado mucho. Aquí loco un animal deos y lo mata uno.
13:00How often do you see them?
13:02Todos los días.
13:03Every day.
13:04Every day?
13:06Wow. What do you think should be done?
13:08Todos merecemos vivir. Toda clase de animal merece vivir. Si tengo la posibilidad que alguien
13:14me lo reciba, yo lo saco, que lo lleven. Y si yo veo que yo no tengo la posibilidad, hay
13:21que sacrificarlos para mí. La vida mía vale más, la de un hijo mío vale más que un animal
13:27de esos. Como aquella persona que está en la ciudad ya sentada, durmiendo bueno, comiendo
13:34bueno. No están mis zapatos, viviendo con ellos.
13:46Pablo Escobar's hippos may be invasive, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be easy to find.
13:53It's on the land. It's on the land.
13:55But I've come all the way here to see these hippos in real life, and I am not leaving Colombia
14:00until I do.
14:02This is a baby one? Wow.
14:06I think we're going to have to call it a night. We weren't able to locate the hippos.
14:12I suppose it's actually not that big of a surprise because we're looking for a population of animals
14:18that's less than 200 in a river basin that's the size of a small country. This river is massive,
14:24so you never really know when you're actually going to find them. But hopefully if we keep trying, we will.
14:36I'm now just checking into what must be one of the most beautiful eclodges in the entire world.
14:43I took a cable car, like a pulley system to get here, and wow. When you think of Colombia,
14:50you can think of all of the amazing cities, Bogota, Medellín, Cartagena, but there's something else
14:57about being this deep in the jungle. Sometimes for me it takes traveling to places like this to
15:04really remember how important it is to slow down every once in a while. That actually brings me to the
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16:19sponsoring this video. It's now time to join the Cornare team on a real fieldwork expedition
16:26into the jungle. I'm really curious to see how this is going to go. We need to be very quiet
16:31here and
16:33we are very close by to the hippos, to the big population of hippos. So if one or two hippos
16:41jump
16:41out of the water, we have to run and we have to find some trees to make protection for us
16:49because it's
16:50really dangerous, okay? You never go to see the hippos with weapons, right? No, no, no, no, never,
16:57never. We can use weapons. Maybe they wouldn't help? For me it's in help because I'm unable to
17:07use again. But it's really dangerous. So if the hippos jump out, we need to run.
17:26Do you see anything? Yes.
17:38Literally face to face with Pablo Escobar's hippos. And they're right here. It feels like my heart is
17:45beating out of my chest looking at these. There's no barriers. We have no weapons.
17:52This is one of the most intense wildlife encounters that I've ever had.
18:04I think mama just yawned and showed us her teeth. Wow, that noise that you can hear.
18:15That's terrifying. Wow, wow. Crazy. Oh, Dios mio. Oh my God.
18:31There is a school very nearby to this lake. Sometimes the kids, I saw a plane in the lake,
18:41so this is our most concerned situation to me because I don't want we have an accident with this.
18:49We can't forget that this is the most dangerous invasive species in the world.
18:56So the hippos, they colonized this lake because it's the biggest lake here around. But it's an
19:03artificial lake. Pablo Escobar built it. Built this one and this one.
19:09We built this corral. The idea was to catch the hippos here. And the idea works.
19:17One of the potential solutions that Cornare explored was a hippo sterilization program.
19:23The hippos are captured here, sedated, and operated on in a procedure that's both risky for the animals
19:30and the veterinarians carrying it out. But after 16 years, only 35 hippos have been sterilized and they're
19:36reproducing faster than they can be caught. If sterilization can't keep up, could taking them into
19:42captivity be the answer? To find out, I'm heading to one of Colombia's best zoos to spend the day as
19:48a hippo caretaker.
19:53A big bowl of breakfast. This has definitely never been something that I thought that I would do at some
20:01point in my life.
20:02It might be almost exactly how much I had. Wow. Hey, getting better at this.
20:11That's good. Contratada.
20:12Oh, my gosh.
20:13Oh, no.
20:14Oh, no.
20:17Fired. It went from hired to fired immediately.
20:20Being able to see just the sheer volume of food that these hippos consume in a single day is just
20:29one aspect of showing how expensive it must be to give these hippos a happy life in captivity.
20:39I think we're now ready to go give these hippos their breakfast. This is so crazy.
20:48Oh, my gosh.
20:58Wow.
21:03Wow. Look at him munching. That is incredible.
21:09It's one thing seeing photos of these animals in textbooks. It is an entirely different thing.
21:16seeing them this close. So now we're about to enter a more controlled
21:22area where they do medical procedures right now.
21:26So, you can see the next step.
21:29So, let's go.
21:35Yeah.
21:43So, let's go.
21:46So, let's go.
21:46So, let's go.
21:48So, let's go.
21:50So, let's go.
21:52So.
21:52So, let's go.
21:55so right now what's happening behind me is a procedure for this hippo who is
22:01damaged teeth the veterinarian here is extremely skilled he's trained by hand
22:08this hippo to be open to literally being able to shove his hands inside of this
22:14hippo's mouth I've truly never seen anything before keep in mind that right
22:19here behind me is one of the most dangerous animals in the entire world
22:24I've never really seen anything else like this before
22:40what we're seeing here is the best possible scenario for the wild hippos of
22:47Colombia one of the first suggestions that people have when they're talking
22:52about this issue with the hippos is that they should just move the hippos to
22:56captivity or sanctuaries or bioparks like this one first of all that's not an
23:03easy thing to do getting these massive extremely dangerous animals here is a
23:08challenge on its own but once you have them in a park like this it while this is
23:14the best case scenario it is definitely not a low maintenance scenario these
23:18people spend their whole careers taking care of these animals they eat multiple
23:25times a day they eat over 350 dollars us per week in food each so just the food
23:32bill let alone the the labor for cleaning their enclosures for maintaining a
23:37healthy area for them for taking care of their health the expenses for how much it
23:42costs to give these hippos a good life is extremely high but thankfully here at
23:48jaime duke park there are some very happy hippos although these hippos are not domesticated
23:56in no way are they friendly this animal would attack him if he hadn't trained him properly to
24:02give these kind of exams this is not in any way a casual animal to care for
24:10from what you know about hippos and the problem in colombia what do you think is the solution to the
24:18hippos that are you know reproducing so rapidly in the wild the euthanasia it's called like euthanasia
24:27uh because it's the only way to control to really control the population because if we uh operate
24:34them like sterilists it's very less sterilization yeah if we do the sterilization they keep living
24:40they can live uh 60 years so they keep uh fighting with other species they can live to 60 yes
24:47in wild
24:4860 years wow so that's a lot uh that's a lot of food that's a lot of food that's a
24:54lot of space of poop
24:56that goes to the water that contaminates rivers uh a lot of time that they keep uh fighting with
25:03like competing with other species for food uh for space so there are a lot of them they keep reproducing
25:10and if we sterilize it sterilize yeah sterilize them uh they continue like living and uh making other
25:19problems wow we heard rumors that there's an indian billionaire named anand ambani who has a wildlife
25:27refuge called ventara and they have insinuated that they could be interested in taking up to 80 hippos
25:36from colombia to india what do you think about that idea do you even think that that's possible
25:43i think it may be possible for him to take uh the animals to that sanctuary uh but i think
25:50that's not
25:50the solution like the right solution because uh he can give the like that money to other causes to
25:58protect other species even to protect the hippos that are there in africa it's not worth to spend that
26:06amount of money moving the animals to other places if he can help other animals that really need it at
26:13the end of the day it sounds like none of the solutions that are on the table are great and
26:20unfortunately it sounds like the main most sustainable solution is euthanasia after years of debate the
26:29colombian government may have just officially decided to begin culling the invasive hippo
26:35population if this truly is the beginning of the end for colombia's wild hippos then this might be one of
26:42the last opportunities to ever witness them roaming free in the magdalena river and i have one final
26:49chance to find them it's a huge river chasing hippos here it's impossible fingers crossed we'll find them
26:58today uh you can see that these are the paths that they use to climb yes yes yes look the
27:05look at the
27:05tracks yeah and uh i was telling you that look at the all of the bushes they hide in the
27:12bushes right
27:13they can hide in the bushes
27:16they can hide in the bushes oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my
27:33god oh my god
27:38Let's go, vámonos.
27:48Is it okay?
27:50It's not okay.
27:53No, ya.
27:55It's a really big one.
27:58Vamos a ponernos en la isla Giovanni Villa.
28:02El ojo.
28:04El ojo.
28:17We are too close of him.
28:20I don't like it.
28:22That was way too close.
28:24Do you usually get that close to them?
28:27Not so close.
28:29It was too close.
28:33And the one we saw, it's a really big one.
28:37That one was huge.
28:38That's the biggest hippo I've ever seen in my life.
28:40You've seen hippo?
28:41I have seen hippo.
28:44In Africa, where they belong.
28:47That was definitely one of those, like, lock in or die moments.
28:53This is the biggest, most macho hippo of all of them here.
28:58It's kind of alpha male.
29:03I'm, like, speechless right now.
29:06That was so intense.
29:21Oh my gosh.
29:23We're seeing these hippos in the wild.
29:26Oh my god, yes.
29:28The green algae.
29:30They just keep bobbing their heads up and down outside of it.
29:33I've never quite seen anything like this.
29:36Oh my god.
29:37You could have no idea that there's hippos here hiding beneath the surface.
29:44Standing here and being able to see these hippos in a more relaxed state.
29:50They're just kind of bobbing their heads in and out of the water.
29:53I can't help but feel sad for them.
29:57I feel like this is an ecological tragedy in a way.
30:01Because these hippos didn't choose to be here.
30:04They were brought here.
30:05It is still an innocent animal.
30:08I do think that human life does have to have the priority here, unfortunately.
30:16But it is quite peaceful out here.
30:20After everything I'd learned on this trip in Colombia, it was hard to know what to make of it all.
30:25Every chapter of this story somehow grew more unbelievable than the last.
30:30And I couldn't stop thinking about something David had mentioned in passing.
30:34It's such a bizarre problem.
30:37Magical realism.
30:39It's difficult to explain but it's very real for all of us.
30:43It turns out he was talking about a famous style of fiction
30:46that's become closely associated with Colombia and its culture.
30:50Magical realism.
30:52It's when a story that at first appears normal is invaded by something too strange to believe.
30:58For example, a poor boy with big dreams becomes the world's most infamous drug lord.
31:04His fortune fills the countryside with buried treasure and exotic animals.
31:09Then four forgotten hippos wander into the wilderness and become one of the most dangerous invasive species on earth.
31:17And now scientists are forced to make impossible choices.
31:22Protect their ecosystem or protect innocent animals that never chose to be here.
31:27And perhaps the most realistic solution to all of this is transporting these hippos halfway around the world to a
31:34wildlife sanctuary built by a billionaire.
31:37If someone had written this as a fiction, you'd probably say it was too unbelievable.
31:42I don't know what's going to happen to the wild hippos of Colombia,
31:45but I do know that they're writing the latest chapter in a country where history has a habit of becoming
31:51stranger than fiction.
31:52Next year, we'll see you in the moment.