General "Did you Know?"s

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Invasive species: a lifeform (either plant or animal) that isn't native to an specific environment and that is negatively affecting said environment.

There are many famous examples such as the lionfish (native to the Indo-Pacific) in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas and the cane toad (native to South and Central America) in Australia. Another, lesser known example of an invasive species is the Hippopotamus (native to Africa) in Colombia. Yes, Colombia. As in the South American country.

So how did the hippos get in there? Back when drug lord Pablo Escobar was alive he had a private Zoo and among those animals were two hippos. After Pablo was killed they returned all the other animals to their natural habitats except the hippos. For some unknown reason the hippos were set free and had plenty of babies. Surprisingly those hippos haven't killed a single human... yet. Then again, these Colombian hippos seem to be less violent compared to their African counterparts likely due to the enviroment. Africa is a dangerous place even for top predators.

Q: "Why don't they just kill the hippos?"

A: Because its illegal. It is illegal to kill those hippos because back when the Colombian military reported that they killed one hippopotamus, the Colombian citizens cried about it because "hippos cute!" and thus it is now illegal to kill the colombian hippos. They tried sterilization but it was considered too risky.


https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireSt...a-75775594