In Colombia, Escobar's hippos are spayed, flooding local rivers

The current herd of hippopotamuses numbers about 80 individuals, and they live in the swampy river network,

located near Medellin.It was there that Escobar once kept his estate, Hacienda Nápoles, which included a private zoo. After Escobar's death in 1993, four hippos escaped from the zoo. The animals, considered too dangerous to be captured, quickly adapted to their new home and have been breeding in the wild ever since.

It became a headache for the Colombianofficials, but instead of killing the fast-growing herd, the biologists decided to neuter the animals and began by administering doses of the contraceptive vaccine to 24 hippos.

Scientists from the Regional Autonomous CorporationThe Negro and Nare River Basins used a vaccine called GonaCon, which the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center developed back in the early 1990s as a contraceptive for deer.

The USDA distributed 55 doses of the drug to Colombians, which wildlife experts injected into hippos with darts. It is planned to sterilize all hippos.

The GonaCon vaccine works on both males andfemales, stimulating the synthesis of antibodies that interfere with the production of sex hormones - gonadotropins, thereby reducing sexual activity and suppressing reproductive function. The vaccine lasts for several years.

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