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To: James H. Irwin who wrote (9352)	4/20/1999 11:39:00 AM
From: Iko Shepard	Respond to of 62558

Hapless Hippo Falls On Hard Times Tuesday April 20 9:48 AM ET dailynews.yahoo.com BOGOTA (Reuters) - He once lived in the lap of luxury, rubbing shoulders with billionaire drug lords and cavorting in the mud with females of his hairless and short-legged breed. But now Nomad, a two-ton hippopotamus, is homeless. Authorities in northwest Antioquia province explained the stocky animal's plight Monday, saying he has been wandering the countryside for months now, following his unceremonious ouster from the place where he'd been living since 1981. That place was on a 7,400 acre (3,000 hectare) estate, complete with a man-made lake and private zoo, that Medellin cartel drug kingpin Pablo Escobar built in the Puerto Triunfo district of Antioquia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Virtually all of the exotic animals that formed part of Escobar's menagerie -- including elephants, rhinoceroses, gazelles and camels -- are thought to have died or been transferred to other zoos long before the infamous cocaine merchant was gunned by police in December 1993. But Mauricio Orozco, a regional wildlife official, said Nomad and four other hippos had continued living in their abode in a state of benign neglect since no Colombian zoos were interested in adopting them. The animals got along fine until last November. But Nomad was suddenly muscled off the estate by a bigger hippo, apparently tired of having to share its two females with two other males, Orozco said. ``He's been wandering from farm to farm ever since,'' he said, saying local peasants had complained about Nomad's ornery encounters with some farm animals, including cows. State officials had identified several possible homes for Nomad, but for the time being Nomad is living up to his name, he added.