The consequences of Pablo Escobar's actions are still being felt in Colombia.

The drug lord built a zoo filled with exotic animals, and even after his fall, the hippopotamuses that belonged to Escobar were thriving in the tropical climates of the country. The animals lived on Escobar's estate and had grown to about 60 in number, notes the BBC.

Although some have been placed in zoos, people have been at a loss on how to handle the animals, which have been seen far away from Escobar's estate, Hacienda Napoles.

The hippos eat vegetation and farmers' crops, and the government says they are a safety issue. Therefore, they will be sterilized, which is going to be funded through money taken from drug traffickers.

In the past, there was an attempt to gather the hippos, but when one was shot and killed there was public outcry. People have taken a liking to them, with some people actually taking the calves home as pets.

Fourteen years after Escobar died, people began calling the Ministry of Environment to report the animals.

"They found a creature in a river that they had never seen before, with small ears and a really big mouth," said Carlos Valderrama of Webconserva. "The fishermen, they were all saying, 'How come there's a hippo here?'" We started started asking around and of course they were all coming from Hacienda Napoles. Everything happened because of the whim of a villain."

Escobar's hippos become sexually active as young as three years old, which is a difference from the hippos in Africa, where the age is between seven and nine for males and nine and 11 for females.

Hacienda Napoles, which Escobar built for his son, was confiscated in the early 1990s.

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