The Taiamã Ecological Station, a small conservation unit that protects a virtually untouched stretch of the Pantanal wetland in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, is home to a peculiar treasure: fishing jaguars (Panthera onca). In a newly published study, a group of international researchers documents that the basic diet of the jaguar population living in this […]
Tag: pantanal
‘Highway of death’: animals pay ultimate price on Brazil’s most dangerous road for wildlife
The last time Schwartz’s tracking monitor registered his location, he was standing at the edge of the “highway of death”. A massive male giant anteater, he was roaming his habitat in the Brazilian Cerrado – a vast tropical savanna that neighbours the world’s largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal – when he disappeared next to the […]
Cat corridors between protected areas is key to survival of Cerrado’s jaguars
With no natural predators to worry about, jaguars (Panthera onca) roam the forests of South and Central America. This feline is found in 18 countries, but only 4% of its critical habitat is effectively protected. The lack of protection has allowed its habitat to be destroyed and fragmented, the main reason why this emblematic species […]
Brazil’s blue macaws, golden lion tamarins back in traffickers’ sights
Experts at two of Brazil’s leading wildlife conservation bodies are on high alert following a spate of seizures of hyacinth macaws and golden lion tamarins from alleged traffickers in recent years. The illegal wildlife trade was what drove the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), the world’s biggest flying parrot species, and the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus […]
Video: Vets hail ‘victory’ as jaguar burned in Pantanal fires returns to wild
Ousado the jaguar could hardly walk. Fires had blown through his territory in the Pantanal region of Brazil, scorching the very ground the animal was running upon as he tried to escape. When a team of volunteer veterinarians eventually captured him in Encontro das Águas State Park, all four of his paws had turned beet […]
For the Pantanal’s jaguars, fires bring ‘death by a thousand needle wounds’
Fernando Tortato usually spends his time scanning camera trap footage to monitor jaguars in the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, a region that sprawls across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. But for the past 45 days, he’s taken on a new role as a firefighter, sometimes working grueling 24-hour shifts to help extinguish the flames […]
For Brazil’s most trafficked parrot, the poaching is relentless
It’s a natural phenomenon that you could set your calendar by: every August, the turquoise-fronted parrots (Amazona aestiva) of Brazil’s Cerrado biome start laying their eggs. The chicks hatch soon after, and by November have left the nest. The cycle is so constant that every year, for decades, poachers have been stealing eggs and chicks […]
Brazilian Amazon protected areas ‘in flames’ as land-grabbers invade
In a remote slice of Triunfo do Xingu, deep in Brazil’s northern Pará state, swaths of lush forest have been engulfed by flames in recent days. In another stretch to the north, a patch of untouched jungle has been almost entirely cleared this year. In countless other parts of this vast protected region, the Amazon […]