Pablo Escobar’s invasive hippos could actually be good for the environment
These pesky escaped pets might actually have a role in Colombia's ecosystem. (Image by Michael Siebert from Pixabay /)Pablo Escobar was a notable character for a lot of reasons—being one of the richest criminals in history, for one. But there was also his desire for having exotic, non-native animals roam around his grounds in Colombia. As the years have passed since the drug kingpin was taken out, most of those critters ended up in zoos, save for four wild hippos. Those hippos found a life of their own, repopulating to a whopping 80 beasts. And most folks think of the creatures as giant pests.However, according to new research, Escobar’s hippos might not be that out of place after all. In fact, they interact with their environment similarly to the ancient Hemiauchenia paradoxa, a llama-like critter that roamed the same area during the Late Pleistocene roughly 100,000 years ago. The tail...