A HIPPO who descended from drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private zoo collection has been killed after a collision with an SUV, Colombian authorities have announced.

Just four of the animals were originally imported at the height of Escobar’s reign in the 1980s and kept in his zoo, Hacienda Nápole, in the north of the country. The animals, which lived among elephants, antelopes, ostriches and other exotic species on the plush eight square mile estate, escaped  after Esobar’s death in 1993 and have been noisily copulating ever since.

Today approximately 130 exist, the largest population outside Africa. A sterilisation programme is in place but the hippos breed faster than local experts can find and catch them before cutting their balls off.

The animals have no natural predators in Colombia to control their population, so the hippos will continue to grow at an exponential rate. According to one study, it has been estimated that by 2034, their population will reach 1,400.

The hippo in question met his demise on a highway between Bogota and Medellin, the site where the infamous drug lord oversaw his cartel and terrorist organisation, when a Renault Duster collided with the colossal animal.

The impact caused the animal to die instantly, but the occupants of the vehicle emerged with only minor injuries.

“This is one of the dangers that the presence of this species represents. Many of them cross the highway where many vehicles pass, it is also a danger to people,” the local biologist David Echeverri López told the AP.

The Colombian government has labeled Escobar’s hippos as an ‘invasive species’ and are currently developing strategies to move them abroad.