The animals were brought to Escobar's private zoo at the Hacienda Napoles ranch in the 1980s. Initially, the herd consisted of three females and one male. After Escobar died in 1993, the exotic animals from his private zoo were moved elsewhere, but the hippos remained. Since it was not easy to find transportation for such massive animals, they have lived undisturbed ever since. Because of the connotation of their former owner's profession, Colombia's hippos are called "Cocaine hippos".
