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Published: February 2nd 2015
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The other reason we went to see Hacienda Nápoles is the private menagerie that Escobar built for his children. These words may call up in your mind a small thing that you could walk through in an hour or so. This is far from the case. The menagerie covers most of the 7600 acres of the estate, with a road that winds from exhibit to exhibit (photo 70) , some of which are truly enormous habitats where the animals live almost as they would in the wild. The tiger habitat covers many acres, with both forest and grassland, bounded by a good tall fence. It started with two tigers, but by now there are many. They are hard to see in the daytime (we saw nothing) but at night they go on the prowl for goats that are given to them in sufficient numbers. We could not stay for the night scene; besides it would be too dark for photos.
We were there mainly to see the hippos. Originally, there were two hippos in a huge artificial lake, about a mile long. But they have been there now about 25 years, in a habitat that they seem to
love, and the birth rate is astounding. They don't even know the exact number of hippos; when asked, they say "about" 40. We saw six.
By good luck, we were there at feeding time. On the far bank appeared a man on a horse, carrying large burlap bags (photo 71). The hippos knew him, and hippo backs popped everywhere near him (photo 72). The bags contained hippo slaw: cabbage, carrots, potatoes and other greens coarsely chopped. He emptied the bags on the ground and left as slowly as he had come. However, only one hippo, perhaps one of the biggest, began to move (photo 73). But before he finished, a second hippo appeared (photo 74). They ate happily together without conflict (photo 75). The others were clearly interested, but did not come out of the water while the two big ones were feeding. They take their time, and we did not stay to see any of the others come out of the water.
There was a baby hippo near the refreshment stand, in a kind of petting-zoo display. He was standing close to the fence with his mouth wide open, begging for food. There
were muddy carrots and potatoes to give him. His pose was not well suited for photos, but you can get the idea from photo 76. Even the babies are pretty impressive and pretty willful.
The problem with these hippos is, they are not exactly in captivity. The lake is bordered most places by a flimsy fence, and at night they come out and wander on the road. Signs warn that you might see them any time after 6PM, and they must not be challenged. Sometimes they go back to the wrong lake, or even to the river, living there just happily as in their proper lake. They can leave the estate through the river, and there have been complaints about torn up cornfields and frightened people. But a proper hippo-proof fence would have to be miles long and very expensive. So for now, or until they actually start killing people, the Columbian government is relying on their love of potatoes and carrots to keep them coming home. Some have even called them feral, an invasive foreign species, a threat to the ecology of Colombia. If they continue to multiply in the next 25 years like they have
in the past, there will be 800 of them; 25 years after that, 16000. But surely something would intervene before that comes to pass. Surely.
Hippos are, by the numbers, the biggest man-killers in Africa. But it usually takes something painful, like a cut from motorboat propeller, to set them off. There has been one hippo murder so far, when a young male challenged the alpha male for dominance, and was deeply stabbed by a tusk. His skull is on display in the refreshment stand.
I'll not lengthen this with any more animal descriptions. The giraffes were not on display; they may have died. However, there was a lovely artificial giraffe standing in the enclosure (photo 70). Also, along the road there are numerous animated dinosaurs with rather feeble electronic roars. Also a woolly mammoth with real mammoth ivory tusks. Maybe Escobar's children liked them.
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Rachel
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Do you think Botero drew inspiration from the hippo garden? ;)