Cocaine hippos (and the case against pets)

Today, Explained

Vox

News, Daily News, Politics

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The descendants of Pablo Escobar’s pet hippopotami are wreaking havoc in Colombia. They can teach us non-druglords a thing or two about pet ownership. This episode was produced by Siona Peterous, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey and Michael Raphael, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Colombia has a hippo problem, which is weird, right?
0:06.5	Because Colombia historically doesn't have hippos, except now it does.
0:12.7	That's right, dozens and dozens of hippos have found themselves very far from home and
0:17.4	now government officials and biologists have to figure out what to do about it.
0:21.7	How they got there involves Pablo Escobar and mountains of cocaine.
0:27.0	But the question is how to get them out because they're causing all kinds of problems.
0:31.2	And what Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippos can teach us regular non-drug lords about pet
0:39.4	ownership?
0:40.9	It is coming up on today's plane.
1:00.2	Estates cuichando a hoy explicado.
1:03.1	Today explain.
1:09.3	Today explain Sean Ramisfer.
1:10.3	I'm here with Diana Durán.
1:12.7	People in the States usually say Diana, but it's Diana.
1:16.1	Diana covers South America for the Washington Post.
1:19.8	I'm in Bogota, Colombia's capital.
1:22.7	Where they're having a hippo problem.
1:25.6	Yeah, there are a problem that has been growing for the past 30 years or so.
1:36.4	Last week we heard of an accident.
1:38.7	A hippo was walking down the motorway and then a car came by.
1:44.5	A family was in it and they hit the hippo and the hippo was killed.
1:50.0	The thing is they're everywhere.
	...

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