Indian billionaire heir offers to save 80 of Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ from Colombian cull

KSBW ^ | Apr 29, 2026 | Apr 29, 2026

[nickcarraway]

Indian magnate Anant Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has offered to take in at his wildlife sanctuary in India, 80 “cocaine hippos” currently living in Colombia, where the government is planning to cull them.

The hippos are descended from animals introduced to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s top drug lords, who sought to have one of the largest private zoos in Latin America with a wide variety of animals.

Since then, their population has exploded to around 160 individuals, and their presence is now endangering native species. A few weeks ago, Colombia said it planned to cull 80 of these animals, sparking debate.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

Hunter Biden started drooling when he thought of how much of his preferred drug could fit into each hippo.

[fso301]

Why don’t they cull all of them if they are known to cause a problem?

$$$$$

My understanding is they have become something of a tourist attraction.

[PeterPrinciple]

https://www.ripleys.com/stories/hippo-meat

During the start of the 20th century, a group of eclectic men decided to tackle America’s meat crisis by introducing hippopotamus into the American diet. Hippo steak may have become a common menu item today had they succeeded.

Frederick Russell Burnham’s Solution
In the early 1900s, a growing population and overgrazed land created high demand for meat. Bison had nearly become extinct, leaving no animals to hunt. However, a man named Frederick Russell Burnham was convinced that hippo meat was the solution.

Burnham was an American adventurer, soldier, and chief of scouts for the British army during the Second Boer War. He moved to Africa in 1893 and was the inspiration behind the Boy Scouts and the big-screen action hero Indiana Jones.

Burnham was a proponent of eating hippopotamus meat because animals such as cows, sheep, poultry, and pig were not native to the United States yet they were a large part of the American diet. Also, African animals such as ostriches and camels had easily adapted to certain areas of the United States, and Burnham believed hippos could do so as well.