<
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/rewilding-in-argentina-helps-giant-anteaters-return-to-south-brazil/>
"Playing back hours of footage from a camera trap set in Espinilho State Park
in the south of Brazil in August 2023, Fábio Mazim and his team banked on
possible sightings of the maned wolf or the Pantanal deer and had their fingers
crossed for a glimpse of a Pampas cat (
Leopardus pajeros), one of the most
threatened felines in the world.
What they didn’t expect to see was an animal long presumed extinct in the
region. To their surprise, the unmistakable long snout and bushy tail of a
giant anteater ambled into shot.
“We shouted and cried when we saw it,” the ecologist from the nonprofit
Pró-Carnívoros Institute told
Mongabay. “It took a few days to grasp the
importance of this record. A sighting of a giant anteater was never, ever
expected.”
Last seen alive in the southwest of the Rio Grande do Sul state in 1890, the
giant anteater (
Myrmecophaga tridactyla) has since been spotted 11 times
since August 2023, although the scientists are unsure whether it’s the same one
or different individuals. However, the sightings confirm one clear fact: The
giant anteater is back.
It’s a huge win for the environment. Giant anteaters play an important role in
their ecosystems, helping to control insect numbers, create watering holes
through digging and are prey for big cats such as jaguars and pumas. The
habitat of the giant anteater stretches from Central America toward the south
cone of Latin America. Its conservation status is “vulnerable,” although it is
considered extinct in several countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and
Uruguay, as well as specific regions such as the states of Rio de Janeiro,
Espirito Santo, Santa Catarina and (until now) Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and
the Cordoba and Entre Rios regions in Argentina."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/good-news-marriage-equality-thailand-conservation-romania-reforestation-mediterranean/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
