Download pdf - Rewilding Iberá - Proyecto Iberá · Rewilding Iberá Newsletter Nº 2 January 2016 this project through a formal agreement with the province of Corrientes. The third agreement was

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Rewilding Iberá Newsletter Nº 2

January 2016

Photo: Karina Spørring

Editorial: Ten Years of Rewilding Iberá: The Visionary Has Left Us, but His Vision Lives On ...............................p.2

News

2015 Has Been the Best Year Yet for the Giant Anteater Project in Iberá ........p.5

The First Collared Peccary Offsprings Are Born in Iberá .......................p.7

The Pampas Deer Population of San Alonso Is Still Growing in San Alonso, and a New Population Has Begun in Socorro .................................p.9

A Gradual Return of the Green- winged Macaw to Iberá Has Begun ..........p.12

A New Maned Wolf Arrives to San Alonso ..........................................p.15

The First Jaguar Comes to Iberá and Corrientes Receives It with Enthusiasm .....p.16

The Campaign “Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again”: Connecting the Restoration of the Natural Heritage with the Culture and Local Development .........p.20

Personal Profile: Karina Lerdrup Spørring, Ethologist and Animal Caretaker ..............p.22

Publications and Technical Reports ...........p.23

Acknowledgments ...................................p.23

Free publication edited by The Conservation Land Trust–Argentina2

Rewilding Iberá Newsletter Nº 2January 2016

Ten Years of Rewilding Iberá:The Visionary Has Left Us, but His Vision Lives On

Editorial

In 1997 Douglas and Kristine Tompkins visited Iberá for the first time, having been invited by Argentinean conservationists interested in attracting the couple to invest in the region. Iberá’s vast, completely plain landscapes, inhabited by subtropical flora and fauna, presented a dramatic contrast to the cold and hilly landscapes of the Patagonia the Tompkinses were used to. The region’s contrast and its high biodiversity made them fall in love with Iberá, and they decided to pur-chase lands in the area to dedicate them to biodiversity conservation.

Soon after, they learned of the area’s history of local fauna extinction, including charismatic and relevant animals such as the jaguar, the giant anteater, the tapir, and the giant otter. This was when Doug decided that the project of the Conservation Land Trust (CLT) in the Iberá Natural Reserve would include not only land conservation and donation—similar to other projects he had been working on—but also an added challenge: bringing back all the great mammal species which had been extinguished in the region.

With at least six species of mammals locally extinct (the jaguar, the giant anteater, the collared peccary, the tapir, the giant otter, and the ocelot) and one very nearly extinct (the pampas deer), the challenge of bringing them all back together to Iberá would represent the most ambitious program of fauna restoration on the American continent. Also to be considered was the recent discovery that two great bird species (the green-winged macaw and the bare-faced curassow) had disap-peared from the region as well. Along with his vision, Doug transferred the goals of extinct fauna restoration,

or rewilding, to the professional team he had been forming in Argentina.

In the year 2005, the then newly formed CLT team in Iberá had to face the question of how to carry out such a monumental assignment. By the middle of that year Sofía Heinonen, as the project coordinator, called together a small but diverse group of people to the Rincón del Socorro reserve in order to generate a road map detailing how this rewilding would be executed. Within that informal meeting were a few professionals with experience in natural resources management in Corrientes, including the then subdirector of the Iberá Natural Reserve and current Director of Parks and Reserves, Pico Fraga, a conflict management expert, myself, a biologist with relative experience in threat-ened wildlife restoration in other countries. It remains one of the most productive conservation meetings I have ever assisted with in my whole life. With neither institutional events, acts, formal scientific presenta-tions, nor people mincing their words for having to represent any concrete institution, all of us were free to think, talk, discuss, and even laugh as individuals, not as designated representatives of specific institu-tions. The meeting lasted for hours, but by the end the agreements achieved there would establish the basis for the current Rewilding Project in Iberá.

I still remember the agreements accomplished there, and I sense that, although they were not written down in the form of a document, they lasted in the minds and hearts of many of the assistants. The first agreement was to start with the species most easily re-introduced, the giant anteater. The second, to realize



this project through a formal agreement with the province of Corrientes. The third agreement was to continue our work with the species that presented the most critical and urgent situation within the prov-ince: the pampas deer. And the last, and perhaps the most important, was to not publicly discuss the jaguar’s return until the conditions warranted it. This need was determined after realizing that once the team began talking about this great felid, it seemed that attention to all other species—as if by magic— would vanish. The jaguar’s charisma and symbolic power were so strong that they literally obliterated any other species we could talk about. Those were times of high con-flict, where society did not believe that an or-ganization represented by a “billionaire Yankee” could truly be interested in acquiring and restor-ing lands in Iberá in order to then donate them to the State. The very idea of nature conservation had only recently taken root in the region, and even less established was the idea of ecological restoration. If we went out with a list of six species, including the word “jaguar,” we could forget all hope of anyone hearing the rest of the list, or hearing that the process would be gradual. What the then suspicious public would hear was only that “they will bring the jaguar back.” And this was not the right moment for that.

Ten years have passed since that meeting, and all the goals of the agreement have been accomplished. In 2006, an agreement was signed with the province of Corrientes for reintroducing the giant anteater.

Currently—as we will see in the following pages—there are two well-settled populations of this species within the Iberá Natural Reserve. In 2009, the first pampas deer translocation to San Alonso Reserve took place. This CLT Reserve, located in the heart of Iberá, houses a wild population of about 80 individuals of this species. And, as detailed within this newsletter, this year we settled the basis for a new population in another sector of Iberá. Regarding the reintroduction of the jaguar, the idea started to become public in 2011, and we found a more positive response than the one we would have expected, from Corrientes

public opinion, landown-ers, Iberá neighbors, and the species experts. After years of meetings, visits, formalities, communi-cations, and facilities construction, the Ex-perimental Jaguar Breed-ing Center (or CECY, from its initials in the Spanish)— whose ul-timate goal is enabling the species to live freely again in the Iberá Natural R e s e r v e — c u r r e n t l y houses a female jaguar,

and a male is expected to arrive within a few days. With the arrival of the first jaguar after decades of absence, opinions expressed by the public and Iberá neighbors exceeded the most optimistic expectations.

But the vision initiated by Doug was not limited to these results. This past year, the first collared peccary group was released, and it has been living freely for seven months by now, having already had the first piglets to be born in the reserve, and a second group, currently in the quarantine phase, will be released soon. In the same way, in October of 2015, the first

Doug and Kris Tompkins with an orphananteater rescued last year.



green-winged macaws—a species considered extinct within Argentina—were released in the Northern region of Iberá. Although this first release has had its setbacks—as described later in this newsletter—the response of our neighbors has been enthusiastic and only adds to that of other individuals and a team willing to keep on working.

Unfortunately, all the achievements of this past year have been overshadowed by Doug’s recent death in early December while kayaking in a lake in Patagonia, Chile. Doug’s loss has been a hard blow to all those who have worked with or known him. His vision, energy, integrity, and work capacity combined have been the origin of the rewilding in Iberá. Without him, today’s Iberá would not house giant anteaters, nor

pampas deer in new areas, nor peccaries, nor macaws, nor jaguars. Fortunately, Doug—with the help of his tireless partner Kris—knew to build a team that would grow to have years of experience, live in the area, and be fully committed to completing the work of bringing back those species that Iberá has lost. Much has been accomplished since that first meeting ten years ago, but a lot of work remains to be done. The Visioner is not with us anymore, but he has left us with a well-mapped road and the team to follow it.

His vision is still fully alive.

Ignacio Jiménez PérezConservation DirectorThe Conservation Land Trust–Argentina

Photo: Florian von der Fecht



2015 Has Been the Best Year Yet for the Giant Anteater Project in Iberá

2015 has been the eighth year we have released and managed giant anteaters in Iberá. Without a doubt, it has been the year we have achieved the most positive results.

To begin with, the team was able to rescue 12 animals originating from other Northern Argentinean prov-inces. Most of these animals, as in previous years, were orphaned pups, although one adult individual was donated by the Temaiken Zoo and the National Wild-life Authority, and another adult wild animal, which arrived with severe wounds, was received.

With respect to the first reintroduced population in Rincón del Socorro, although no animals have been released this year, ten new births have been registered, two of which come from a first-time mother (Renata). A female giving birth twice a year represents a rare event.

Mishky, with her cub Facha, and the adult male Machetero.

Photo: Emanuel Galetto

Key DataAt least 12 animals were born during this year within the two reintroduced populations in Iberá, with four of them belonging to first-time mothers.

Animal survival is very high, as no deaths have been detected among the 32 individuals we monitor regularly.

Approximately 70 animals are living among the two reintroduced populations.



In the the population of San Alonso, initiated in 2013, seven animals have been reintroduced, with the first two births having already been reported. Something remark-able about these cubs is that they come from mothers less than three years old, representing an early age for this species, which is a good indicator of health status of the animals released over these vast grasslands. Between both populations, we know about the existence of ten repro-ductive females, although the number must be higher, since there are females born within the area which we do not monitor but which must have already reproduced.

To highlight these results even further, we have not reg-istered any deaths within the reintroduced populations during this year, a remarkable fact to consider given that we regularly monitor 32 individuals (adults and cubs) for which we would have detected any possible

death with certainty. This indicates a very high level of survival among released animals and their cubs. With all this data, we know there are 19 individuals living in the population of San Alonso and we believe there are around 50 animals living in the population of Socorro.

During the next year, we will be releasing more animals in the population of San Alonso and then monitoring them with radio-harnesses. In Rincón del Socorro we will determine when the appropriate time has arrived for removing the last of the harnesses and will continue to monitor the population exclusively by trap cameras. In this way, we will not be overwhelming the animals, mini-mizing any disturbance that would arise by recapturing them to adjust their harnesses. Thanks to these positive steps, this population could then move from an active management phase to a noninvasive-monitoring one.

Readjusting the radio-harness to fit one of the giant anteaters at San Alonso grasslands.

Photo: Ramón Moller Jensen



The First Collared Peccary Offsprings Are Born in Iberá

In our previous newsletter, we announced the arrival of the first peccaries to the quarantine facilities. At that time, ten animals donated from Horco Molle Experimental Reserve in the province of Tucumán had arrived. In April, after successfully passing all health checks, the ten animals were taken to their prerelease pen located in the Rincón del Socorro Reserve, one of the CLT properties located near Colonia Carlos Pellegrini town. Neighbors, authorities, and Iberá Natural Reserve staff received the arrival of the first peccaries with great enthusiasm, after

Neighbors, authorities, and park rangers assist with the arrival of peccaries to their prerelease pen.

Healing a wounded peccary.

Photo: Ignacio Jiménez

Key DataSeven adult peccaries have been living free in Iberá for seven months.

One of the reintroduced females has given birth to two piglets, which are in good health.

Eight new peccaries, donated by the the province of Salta authorities, are currently going through a quarantine period before their release, which will reinforce the already-settled nucleus.

decades of the species having remained absent in the region.

We noticed during their time inside the prerelease pen that, within the group of ten individuals, a male and a female appeared to be separated from the rest, and they were even attacked by the other animals. The rejection of these animals was unexpected, since all the animals came from the same enclosure in Tucumán and thus had previously known each other. These attacks resulted in severe and deep wounds, which later became infected from fly larvae, along with high stress levels suffered by the rejected animals. Despite cleansing their wounds and treating them with several medicines, both animals died before the group’s release from the pen.

The eight remaining animals were released from the pen in early June, and soon after a male became separated from the group, probably due to fights with the domi-nant male. Of the seven remaining animals, one female was found dead by mid-July, without any evidence sug-gesting the cause of death, aside from low body weight.



Fortunately, the remaining seven animals have been growing better adapted to their new wild environment, moving around a relatively small area, covered by small forests, savannas, and open grasslands. By early Decem-ber, we received the great news that Nara (one of the five females from the main reintroduced group) had given birth to two piglets in the wild. These piglets are in good, healthy condition and, within the weeks to follow, we expect new babies to be born from the other reintroduced females.

In order to reinforce this incipient population, a new group has already been brought to our quarantine facili-ties. This group has been donated by the Native Fauna Station from the Government of Salta and counts the fact of not being related to the already released indi-viduals as an advantage. In this way, once freed, not only will these animals demographically reinforce the reintroduced population but they will likewise increase the genetic diversity—also known as hybrid vigor—for peccaries inhabiting Iberá.

Looking after an anesthetized peccary. Nara with her two recently born piglets.

Photo: Alvaro García Photo: Antonella Lema

Photo: Rubén Digilio

A peccary group feeding on Socorro grassland.



The Pampas Deer Population of San Alonso Is Still Growing in San Alonso, and a New Population Has Begun in Socorro

In 2009, the first six deer were taken to San Alonso Reserve, within the inner Iberá Natural Reserve. This first group was reinforced in 2011 and 2012 with 16 additional animals. Since then, the translocated animals produced at least 46 fawns by the end of 2014. During 2015, population growing rates have remained

positive, with 15 additional fawns having been identi-fied, only one of which was found dead, and with no identified adult death. Nevertheless, considering the great number of nonmarked animals, it is probable that the number of fawns born approaches 20 indi-viduals rather than the 14 registered. As a whole, the reintroduced population in San Alonso, only six years after the first release, would be composed of around 70‒80 individuals.

In order to continue with the species recovery, during August of this year, the CLT team counted on the support of the Government of Corrientes and two private companies for working toward the return of this cervid within another portion of Iberá Reserve.

Pampas deer in San Alonso.

Photo: Hernán Povedano

Key DataAfter 14 identified births, we estimate that the first reintroduced population numbers around 70–80 individuals.

With the support of many institutions, a new population is started in another portion of Iberá near Colonia Carlos Pellegrini town.

https://youtu.be/gr4CUpCMRzE

https://youtu.be/gr4CUpCMRzE



The chosen place is the Rincón del Socorro Reserve, a 13,000-hectare area comprised of grassland and forest, where giant anteater and peccaries are already being recovered. This reserve also has the advantage of being close to Colonia Carlos Pellegrini town, whose inhabit-ants live mainly from ecotourism.

In order to achieve this goal, we made an agreement with Aguará Cuá SA forestry company for capturing and translocating deer from their forestry lands located near National Route 12 to Socorro Reserve. Later, El Portrero Reserve, located in Entre Ríos, donated the use of a helicopter and its pilot. Within this first phase, four animals were translocated (two males and two females). No deaths were registered during this delicate work of capture and movement, but a month after being in the prerelease pen, a male (Garrucho) died due to a leg wound he made himself inside the pen, with an

unknown cause. At that moment, only one male and two females remained alive, a very small group for start-ing a reintroduction in the area.

We then asked the Government of Corrientes for help in reinforcing this proto-nucleus with animals from the already-established population in San Alonso. The province authorities immediately agreed to lend an air-plane for transporting animals, enabling the capture and translocation of two females and one male to the prerelease pen.

A month later, the pen gate opened, and little by little the animals started to explore their new environment. At that moment, a critical period had begun, which will determine the translocation’s success or failure. If the animals should decide to stay in a regular group near the release zone, the reintroduction would indicate

Translating an anesthetized deer to the helicopter.

Veterinarians watching over a recovering deerin a sector of the acclimation pen.

Photo: Rubén DigilioPhoto: Florian von der Fecht



success, while their separation and migration to non-protected areas could imply project failure, as happened within San Nicolás area (see Newsletter Nº 1 from this series).

In order to improve the deer settlement in this protected area, we conducted prescribed fires for grass regrowth for attracting these animals and we even spread deer feces from the population of San Alonso individuals. The idea was to transmit a clear signal for the reintro-duced animals that the area was appropriate for them; that is, a place with enough food and inhabited by other deer, as evidenced by the presence of feces.

Two months later, the results are still uncertain, but hopeful. Soon after being released from the pen, one female moved to a cattle ranch field near Socorro Reserve and died some time later. The remaining animals stayed in the protected area, but after a few weeks the two males fought with each other, causing one to move out of Socorro, probably in search of other females, which he likely would not find as these are the only pampas deer within a 40‒60-kilometer radius. The good news is that the remaining deer seem to have settled within the protected area in Socorro. If we can keep them here and they begin reproducing, we could be in a situation similar to San Alonso and would then be able to reinforce this newly established group with more external animals.

Through all these years of work, we have already found three animals that died after entering into noncon-served private lands, either pine forestry areas or cattle ranches. This leads to the conclusion that both hunting and domestic dogs represent severe threats to these cervids within traditional productive lands,

pointing out the importance of population establish-ment in strict conservation areas in order to assure the long-term survival of the species. Fortunately, one of the most positive aspects during these years of work is the growing commitment from private institutions and the Government of Corrientes for establishing populations in new areas, as happened with Socorro translocations.

Female deer in the prerelease pen, before her final release.

Photo: Emanuel Galetto

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/boletines/newsletter_rewilding_1.pdf



A Gradual Return of the Green-winged Macaw to Iberá Has Begun

Last October 29, more than a hundred people anxiously watched as a panel from a large cage opened near the Monte Rey camping area, in Cambyretá Reserve, at the northern tip of Iberá. Nobody seemed to feel the high temperature that day, as their eyes were fixated on the opening cage and on what would happen next. A few minutes later, a noisy couple flew out of this cage, with vivid scarlet, green, and blue colors. Soon after, a second couple flew out, followed by a third pair.

These beautiful birds were green-winged macaws, the parrot’s biggest relative, which became extinct from Iberá and the rest of Corrientes more than a century ago. Macaws have always inhabited the northern portion of Argentina, but over the last two centuries three species became extinct. The greatest and most attractive, the green-winged macaw (Ara chloropterus), or “guaá-pytá” in the guaraní language, and the glau-cous macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus) or “guaá-hovy,”

The green-winged macaw is considered extinct in Argentina, having inhabited forest patches over the Paraná river and Iberá more than a century ago.

Since 2014, we have been generating agreements with zoos and authorities in order to obtain individuals of this species for release within the northern portion of Iberá.

In October of this year, the experimental release of the first macaws took place in Cambyretá Reserve, with a great awareness between authorities, conservationists, and neighbors from the nearest city of Ituzaingó.

Thanks to this first release, we could learn areas for improvement and there are five macaws in a prerelease pen going through a training phase for their future release.

Key Data

Authorities, neighbors, scientists, conservationists and journalists attending the macaws release event.

Photo: Ignacio Jiménez



used to inhabit fields with forest portions, palms, and riverside forest over the province of Corrientes and other portions of northeast Argentina. The glaucous macaw became totally extinct as a species, while the green-winged—more adaptable—disappeared from Argentina but continued to maintain healthy popula-tions a hundred kilometers north.

Macaws have always been used by native people, either for consumption, as companions, or for ornamenta-tion, their tail feathers being quite coveted for their size and colors. With the arrival of Europeans to America, macaws were also captured to be taken to the Old Word like a commodity. Numerous explorers such as D’Orbigny, Félix de Azara, Sánchez Labrador, Fontana and Holmberg cited the species’ presence for the south-ern portion of Paraguay and northern Argentina near the Paraná River. The report of the species being cap-tured and traded was common until the nineteenth century, suggesting that these beautiful birds disap-peared more than a hundred years ago, overhunting by humans being the main cause of it.

The green-winged macaw reintroduction project repre-sents the first experience within the region attempting to restore a locally extinct bird. It involves an effort coordinated by CLT with scientific assistance from CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Re-search Council) researchers, along with the support of the Corrientes government, numerous Argentinean zoos, and local birdwatcher teams, and added funding from a European philanthropist. Release of the first seven animals represents just the beginning of the process.

The released macaws come from zoos and other in-stitutions where they have been living in captivity their whole life. This involves developing and refin-ing techniques in order to guarantee they will be able to live successfully in the wild. The first challenges appeared only a few days after their release, when a particularly strong storm affected the animals, two of which appeared to have been preyed on by an animal, probably a wildcat. The best-flying bird was recaptured and taken to the cage again. Others flew off over the

Macaws are released from their acclimatization cage.

Photo: Matías Romano



forest patches of northern Iberá, making it impossible to locate them again.

Currently, five of the birds are living in the acclimatiza-tion cage and others are being prepared for their release, at a time to be determined once we’ve evaluated and improved on different aspects related to their release and monitoring. In this sense, while we are improving upon training the macaws for their free life, we must improve the radio-tracking system—the one we have been using had been implemented in another project, but it pre-sented several problems with our animals—and we will try to keep one animal inside the cage permanently for it to work as an “anchorage” and “birdcall” for the released animals not to disperse before being completely suitable for a living in the wild. All this will help the releasing process become more gradual for these captive animals,

as compared to those we have conducted with other species such as deer, anteaters, or peccaries.

After watching these birds take flight again in the area, we took in the sight of people’s excited faces and even some that shed a tear. Province authorities, neighbors from the nearest city of Ituzaingó, journalists, visitors from different towns as Concepción or Carlos Pellegrini, scientists and environmentalists—altogether witnessing and celebrating “the return of a giant.” Most likely, it will take several years until Iberá holds a macaw popu-lation totally independent of human care, but in any case, for those who assisted at Cambyretá on October 29, it will be difficult to forget those noisy and colorful animals flying all over the blue and green skies of Iberá. This will be our motivation for continuing working for the species recovery.

The green-winged macaws fly again over Iberá.

Photo: Hernán Povedano



A New Maned Wolf Arrives to San Alonso

In our previous newsletter, we told the story of two female maned wolves released in San Alonso, one in 2014 and another in early 2015. Both animals had been donated by fauna authorities—the first one by the province and the second one by the nation—and

they were released in an area that once held a popula-tion of these carnivores some decades ago but which had been reduced by the end of the past century. Both females have been monitored by radio-tracking during this year and are still living in the area. The first released female—Rita—occupies the northern portion of San Alonso, while the second one has been registered over southern San Alonso and at the north of the Ñu Py little village, located over the next high land to the south. In both cases, the animals have a huge home range of about 5,000 hectares.

Some weeks later, province authorities notified Gustavo Solís, our veterinarian coordinator, about a maned-wolf cub being held in a house in the near city of Virasoro. Gustavo visited that house with a fauna agent and con-fiscated the animal. The cub, a five-month-old male, was very used to people, which implied that whatever place received him would have to guarantee he would be safe, if released, from hunters or from being hurt by humans. Immediately, the authorities considered San Alonso as the most suitable place, as he would live together with the previously released females. The cub was named Namby Guazú (which means “big ears” in Guaraní) and was sent to our quarantine facilities for his health checks and for gaining weight before traveling to San Alonso. Once there, we decided to keep him in one of the large jaguar enclosures, until he reached a size and weight big enough for attaching a radio collar and releasing him.

During these months, Namby has been fed native fruits (this canid’s diet includes a great proportion of fruits) and was able to hunt little animals that entered the enclosure. After detecting some maned-wolf

Photo: Karina Spørring

The two released females have settled down and are still alive in the area.

A male confiscated by authorities is going to be released in the same area.

Key Data

Namby Guazú in his acclimatization pen inSan Alonso.



footprints around his enclosure, we placed a camera trap and could prove that Rita, one of the females living in San Alonso, visited him frequently and that the pair could observe each other through the hedge.

Photo: CLT

We hope within the next two or three months to follow that Namby will grow large enough for radio-collaring and release and that we can then follow his adaptation into the wild.

Namby watches Rita through his prerelease pen.

The First Jaguar Comes to Iberá and CorrientesReceives It with Enthusiasm

The objective of the Experimental Jaguar Breed-ing Center (CECY, Centro Experimental de Cría de Yaguareté) is to raise jaguars which will eventually be released and live successfully in their natural environ-ment. This feline is now the most endangered mammal species in Argentina, where only an estimated two hundred specimens live in the wild. The jaguar disap-peared from Corrientes in the mid-twentieth century due to suffering from human persecution. However, times have changed in Iberá, where neighboring com-munities now see ecotourism as a means to their own development and view the jaguar as a symbol of prog-ress and recovery of lost values. This was evident in

Tobuna, a female jaguar, arrived at the Breeding Center in Iberá in May 2015.

The public’s enthusiastic response to Tobuna’s arrival exceeded our greatest expectations.

The female has adapted well to the new environment, growing increasingly fit and even learning to hunt a few prey.

After months of paperwork and consultation we were able to bring a male jaguar to the project.

Key Data



absence of sixty years, a jaguar timidly took her first step on the Corrientes soil. Officials from the Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Parks and Reserves of Corrientes, representatives of three municipalities of Iberá, the parish priests of the towns of San Miguel and Conception, Mburucuyá National Park rangers, Kristine and Douglas Tompkins, conservation profes-sionals, and dozens of locals were among those present to witness this moment.

With the animal in its new home, everybody gathered to celebrate with a traditional asado, or “barbecue,” while the local Chamamé singer, Juan Carlos Jensen, recited the lyrics of “Huellas” (“Footprints”), which tells the sad story of the last jaguar of Iberá. Toward the end, Kristine Tompkins expressed thanks to the authorities for their support in this groundbreaking project, and to all those who pushed forward to ensure that the jaguar would set foot on Iberá soil once again.

Since then, Tobuna has adapted quite well to her new and spacious home in Iberá. She has been gradually

the town of San Miguel, where the population turned up to receive Tobuna as if she were a movie star or a famous athlete. Children from three different schools waited in front of the school buildings to witness the big cat, which appeared surprisingly calm given all the attention she received.

Past the town of San Miguel, in the small hamlet of Capilla del Monte, where a cooperative of villagers whose livelihood depends on ecotourism has been established, a group of school children were waiting, holding banners and with their tiny faces painted as jaguars, for the procession of the 13 pickup trucks car-rying Tobuna. The technicians of the project who spent years preparing for this moment could not believe the enthusiasm of the local people.

After a boat trip of about two hours, the jaguar reached its final destination on the island of San Alonso. At the moment when Tobuna stepped out of the carrying case and entered her new pen, close to a hundred people watched excitedly. No one said a word when, after an

Photo: Rafael Abuín

The community of San Miguel welcomes Tobuna as if she was a star.

The children of Paraje Capilla welcome Tobuna.

https://youtu.be/6TUMDVasNzU



exploring the 1,200-square-meter pen, recovering the strength and agility so characteristic of this species and which she had lost, having spent her life locked in a limited enclosure with no places to climb. Tobuna soon discovered she could climb a big tree as well as a series of platforms situated on top of a dead tree which had been placed inside her pen. During these months, the project technicians have occasionally provided her with live prey—as required by the management plan of the CECY—to encourage the future mother to begin de-veloping her hunting skills. Even though this animal will serve solely as a breeder and will never be released, the considered opinion is that it is important for her to learn to hunt in order to pass on this skill to her future cubs.

At the same time, as conveyed across social networks and through comments on the street, people have re-sponded incredibly positively. This same favorable re-sponse has been seen on provincial and national media. Simultaneously, the authorities of Corrientes began

asking Argentine zoos for their support in obtaining other animals, and the National Chamber of Deputies declared the jaguar breeding project to be of special interest.

The search for a male partner for the female jaguar con-tinued throughout the last few months until January 7, when Nahuel, a male jaguar about twelve years old from

Authorities, neighbors, gauchos, conservationists and journalists listen to Kris Tompkins on the day that Tobuna was brought to the breeding center.

Photo: Hada Irastorza

A jaguar steps in Iberá after 60 years.

Photo: Rafael Abuín



the Bubalco zoo in Río Negro, arrived at the quarantine facilities. Several months of paperwork and administra-tive efforts were required to finally bring Nahuel to Corrientes. It was necessary to verify that Nahuel had no direct genetic relation to Tobuna, the female who is currently at the CECY, and at the same time to make sure that both animals belonged to the same genetic lineage of the Argentine jaguar. This involved a genetic study coordinated by Dr. Patricia Mirol of CONICET, in which—with the support of the National Wildlife Authority, provincial governments, researchers and experts on the species, and CLTdozens of Argentine jaguar genetic samples were analyzed.

When it was proved that Nahuel was a “genetically” suitable male for Tobuna, the Bubalcó and Buenos Aires zoos joined in on the project, which was a key factor in allowing this male to travel to Corrientes. Now that the CECY has a partner for Tobuna, it remains to be seen whether there is affinity between the two animals, and if Tobuna, who is about twelve years old, is still able to

be a mother. At least it is known that she was the last female to breed in captivity in the country. Due to the difficulty of bringing more animals to Argentina, the next couple will probably come from zoos or farms from neighboring countries, which would require months of paperwork and complex negotiations.

Hopefully a union between Tobuna and Nahuel will mean a small but significant step forward has been made toward the recovery of this beautiful animal in Argen-tina. It is only the beginning of a long process that will take at least ten years. If it were possible to establish a population of jaguars in Iberá, about one hundred animals could be living in an area with no human contact, serving as an important tourism resource for the 100,000 people living around the reserve. This big cat, a symbol of the most authentic Iberá, would there-fore not only reclaim its role as top predator within this ecosystem but would also represent a future in which wildlife serves as one of the main engines of local development.

Tobuna climbs a tree in the Jaguar Experimental Breeding Center.

Photo: Rubén Digilio

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/yaguarete/Estudio_Genetico_Yaguaretes.pdf




The Campaign “Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again”: Connecting the Restoration of the Natural Heritage with the Culture and Local DevelopmentThere has always been a great sense of pride in both the traditions and the land of the province of Cor-rientes. This relationship with the land could be seen, for most of the last century, through an extractive use that eventually led to the largest process of defauna-tion in northern Argen-tina. However, the people of Corrientes have not felt the need to “take over” or

“civilize” the wild, because they do not see themselves as settlers who transform their habitat, as happens in other neighboring provinc-es of Argentina, but rather as native inhabitants who live within it. With the cre-ation of the Iberá Natural Reserve in 1983, this tra-ditionalist and conserva-tive mentality went on to evolve into a conserva-tionist one. This protected area enabled the people of Corrientes to transform their attachment to the land into large-scale, tangible actions of care and restoration of their natural heritage.

During the twentieth century, when this natural heritage was being lost and as a consequence of the globalized economy, the rich cultural heritage of the province was in danger of being forgotten. It was a culture shaped by a unique combination of the gaucho, the Guarani natives, the Spanish colonial traditions,

and the Jesuits. These groups, having all adapted to life in the interface between grasslands, wetlands, and the forests throughout the centuries, would find

their multiple influences becoming evident in the form of unique craftwork, architecture, cuisine, my-thology, music, language, and use of domestic and wild animals.

During the years spent working on the restoration of the vanished animals of Iberá, the CLT team dis-covered (and at the same time fell in love with) the nearly forgotten cultural heritage of the region. As the process of ecological restoration became more and more connected to local development through ecotourism, it became obvious that the cultural values not only deserved to be protected in a similar

way to the natural values but that they were in fact complementary to them in regard to what is offered to visitors.

This was how the campaign Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again slowly began to surface. Douglas Tompkins himself came up with the idea as well as the name of the campaign as a way of uniting the love felt by the people of Corrientes toward their land



with the concept of restoration of the extinct fauna. An essentially visual communications campaign was launched, which had no logos or institutions to “own” it, and which aimed to bestow value upon both the natural and the cultural heritage of Iberá. Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again started off as a campaign of posters with images of iconic wildlife of Iberá, especially those species currently being reintroduced. It was not by chance that the first poster ever printed with the phrase Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again depicted an image of a jaguar. More recently the campaign has incorporated the concept of cultural recovery, in particular in a video that tells a story of Iberá where ecological and cultural restoration becomes the basis for the development of this region. This video has been seen by thousands of people from Corrientes and Argentina, and, because it does not represent any particular institution, it has been used freely by private, community, and governmental representatives.

The campaign has grown in intensity this year largely due to the help of a team that traveled to more than

50 locations throughout the province, where they spoke to the authorities of each municipality and left around 1,500 posters in shops and public buildings. A short promotional spot was recently produced for display on local TV and in cinemas. In the words of Talia Zamboni, a biologist who works on this cam-paign: “The result is very positive; people welcome us very kindly (as is habitual of the people of Cor-rientes) and are amazed at the wildlife that, in some cases, they were unaware had been present in their province. Some even commit to frame the posters or even create a collection of them for each species. Many are interested to learn more about the reintroduction projects they already heard about through the media. It is common for people to ask, ‘Well? Does Tobuna have a boyfriend yet?’ or to tell us they have heard about the release of macaws in Iberá and say, ‘Such beautiful animals, hopefully we will see them around here too!’ Some tell us how they used to see some of these species in the past, while others ask, ‘But was this animal ever here? That is nice!’ Others ponder and then conclude, ‘Yes ... Corrientes Becomes Corrientes Again ... of course ... they are right.’”

Photo: Talía Zamboni

https://youtu.be/zmXGVwMJxf4

https://youtu.be/84HgvdZKNlY



Personal Profile: Karina Lerdrup Spørring, Ethologist and Animal Caretaker

The People Behind the Wildlife Restoration

Karina Spørring, born in 1978, grew up in Hammel, a village of 7,000 inhabitants surrounded by forests and lakes in western Denmark. Throughout childhood she trained for outdoor activities with the boy scouts, but this was not enough for this young Danish girl with a Latin spirit. After finishing her technical studies on ethology and on animal ca-retaking in her native country, and after having completed an internship at the Jersey zoo, she decided to seek warmer climates and move to Spain where she began to work at the small but well-maintained zoo of Fuen-girola, Málaga. Subsequently, she served as head of the area for carnivores of the Bioparc in Valencia from 2006 to 2010. During those years, in addition to her work at the zoo, she took lessons in salsa and other tropi-cal dances.

In the end, her Latin soul took the next step and she chose to volunteer at the wildlife restoration program of CLT in Iberá. Her great capa-city for work led to her being given more responsibi-lities and between 2010 and 2011 she was in charge of monitoring the reintroduced deer in San Alonso. She went on to monitor and take care of the anteaters from Socorro, and in 2013 she returned to her roots working for the Experimental Jaguar Breeding Center (CECY) as the person in charge of carnivores. This meant a year spent leading a group of local gauchos who were building the center. Although Karina had

no previous experience in construction work (let alone being responsible for a group of Corrientes’ country-men!) she managed to pull off the task after a very rainy year that terribly complicated the work. As a result of that experience, today Karina knows each and every part of the CECY and cherishes it like she would

a personal masterpiece (which it actually is).

Those who have had the chance to listen to Kari explain how the Center operates will not forget the attention to detail, thorou-ghness, and yet humility she conveys in her knowledge and care of the facilities dedicated to accommodating the jaguars. All of the hard work of construction and maintenance was rewarded this year with the arrival of the first female jaguar, Tobuna. Pro-viding the adequate comfort, encouragement, and security measures necessary for achieving

successful reproduction among jaguars arriving at the center, and to ensure that in the near future any cubs born at the center meet the basic requirements for eventual released, depends on her. When not busy at CECY, this meticulous and caring Danish lady con-tinues to improve her Latin rhythms, incorporating the Chamamé, the local folkloric dance of Corrientes. When the high temperatures of Corrientes strike she is surprised by her longing for the time when, at twenty years old, she trained 80 sled dogs in the mountains of Norway.

Photo: Federico Pontón



Publications and Technical Reports

We would like to make available the following publications and technical reports related to the Wildlife Restora-tion Program in Iberá that have been produced in recent months.

Di Blanco, Y. E., I. Jiménez Pérez and M. S. Di Bitetti. 2015. Habitat Selection in Reintroduced Giant Anteaters: The Critical Role of Conservation Areas. Journal of Mammalogy 96: 1024–1035.

Jiménez Pérez, I. et al. 2015. Reintroducción del hormiguero gigante (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) en la Reserva Natural Iberá (Argentina): ¿misión cumplida? Edentata 16: 11-20.

Mirol, P. et al. 2015. Informe sobre los análisis genéticos de Panthera onca (yaguareté) dentro del programa del Centro Experimental de Cría de Yaguaretés en la Reserva Iberá. Unpublished report.

Zamboni, T., R. Albuín, E. Galetto, et al. 2015. Proyecto de recuperación del oso hormiguero gigante en la Reserva Natural Iberá: informe de resultados y actividades (2014). Unpublished report.

Zamboni, T., A. Delgado, I. Jiménez Pérez, et al. 2015. How Many Are There? Multiple Covariate Distance Sampling for Monitoring Pampas Deer in Corrientes, Argentina. Wildlife Research 42: 291-301

Zamboni, T., I. Jiménez Pérez, R. Abuín, et al. 2015. Proyecto de recuperación del venado de las pampas en la Reserva Natural Iberá y los bañados de Aguapey: informe de resultados y actividades (2014). Unpublished report.

Zamboni, T. 2015. Percepción de actores locales sobre el yaguareté (Panthera onca) y su potencial reintroduc-ción en Iberá, Corrientes, Argentina. M.Sc. thesis in Wildlife Management. Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica.

Acknowledgments

All of the above stories would not have been possible without the active collaboration of dozens of people and institutions. We would like to give our thanks to all of them, although it is possible that the following list is not complete. In the first place, we want to thank the government of Corrientes, which has been providing increasing support to this rewilding project in Iberá. Additional thanks go to: Authorities from the provinces of Santiago del Estero, Formosa and Salta, who donated the giant anteaters incorporated into the project this year, in addition to their many other contributions.

Authorities from the province of Salta, in charge of the Native Fauna Station, who donated the second group of peccaries to be incorporated into the project. The agro-forestry company Aguará Cuá SA, which not only sup-ports efforts to conserve the pampas deer living within their lands, but also allowed us to capture some of them for the new population in Socorro. Marcos Pereda from El Potrero Reserve, who contributed the helicopter and a pilot for carrying out those captures. And the prov-ince, which also contributed theirs when we needed an aircraft for moving animals from San Alonso to Socorro.

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/habitat_selection.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/habitat_selection.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/Reintroduccion_Oso_Hormiguero_Mision_Cumplida.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/Reintroduccion_Oso_Hormiguero_Mision_Cumplida.pdf



http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/Informe_Proyecto_Oso_Hormiguero%20Ibera_2014.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/osohormiguero/Informe_Proyecto_Oso_Hormiguero%20Ibera_2014.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/venado/Monitoring_Pampas_Deer.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/venado/Monitoring_Pampas_Deer.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/venado/informe_proyecto_venados_corrientes_2014.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/venado/informe_proyecto_venados_corrientes_2014.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/yaguarete/Tesis_Maestria_Talia_Zamboni.pdf

http://www.proyectoibera.org/download/yaguarete/Tesis_Maestria_Talia_Zamboni.pdf



Texts: Ignacio Jiménez Design: Andrés Stubelt Translation: Talía Zamboni & Louise Rhodes English translation review: Mary E. Jacobsen Photo: Alvaro García

The La Plata and Olavarría zoos, which contributed macaws for the reintroduction project in Iberá. From a group seized by the Department of Natural Resources of Corrientes, additional macaws were acquired. Also, this government has donated the male maned wolf for release in Iberá. Don Luis Reserve owners and staff have been of great support regarding the field work that technicians carry out with macaws. The same enthu-siastic support comes from the COA (Birds Observer Club) Carau from Ituzaingó and the Boy Scouts for the Science. The National Wildlife Department, repre-sented by Gabriel Terny, for providing assistance with the required authorizations and procedures. We also want to thank to the zoos of Buenos Aires and Bubalcó for the donation of Nahuel, the male jaguar. We hope

that the only zoo from the North of Argentina currently holding jaguars suitable for reproduction will take this as an example to follow and join us in this conservation effort. This year the jaguar project received funding from the Broomley Foundation and the Artis Zoo of Amsterdam. At the same time, the macaw project would not be possible without the funding received from a Eu-ropean philanthropist who prefers to stay anonymous. Volkswagen Argentina donated the loan of a pickup for our field work. Finally, we want to thank the support of the numerous volunteers who have collaborated this year, along with CLT and Iberá Natural Reserve park rangers, whose daily work is essential for wildlife recov-ery, and who remain unnamed most of the time. They are the real heroes of Iberá.