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The Impenetrable Region in northern Argentina’s Chaco province earned that name because of its closed and thorny mountain, but mostly because of the scarcity of water. In the dry season, its fauna depend on the Bermejo River for survival: tapirs, peccaries, cougars, anteaters, roe deer and other animals that inhabit this ecosystem, now part of the Gran Chaco, the second largest forest in South America, is heavily of threatened with deforestation. Traces of a jaguar, or yaguareté as it is called in Argentina, the largest cat in the Americas, were found on one of the banks of the Bermejo in early 2019. It had been more than a decade since there were records in the range of the continent’s largest predator. These footprints were the starting point of an ambitious project by the Rewilding Argentina Foundation: the restoration of this nearly extinct species in El Impenetrable National Park, established five years earlier.
Thanks to the installation of camera traps, it was possible to see it for the first time: it was a young and majestic man, baptized in the Qom language as Qaramtá, “he who cannot be destroyed”. The first step was to lure him to sleep and install a satellite collar that would allow him to know his location and use of the territory in near real time. “It covers many kilometers every day, it can do more than 30,” explains biologist Nicolás Muñoz from the field station in the park, from where he monitors all movements of this 113-kilo predator. “He swims very well, he crosses the Bermejo whenever he wants, even at high tide,” he adds, referring to the mighty river that serves as the border between the Chaco and Formosa provinces.
View of the Bermejo River Matias Rebak-Rewilding Argentina Foundation
The ease of crossing this natural boundary worries the Rewilding Argentina team of scientists. Until 2011, much of the territory to which Qaramtá is moving belonged to Italian landowner Manuel Roseo. His stay included 250,000 hectares of forest in very good conservation status: almost 150,000 on the Chaco side, another 100,000 on the Formosa side. But on January 13, 2011, Roseo was found murdered at his home along with his sister-in-law. They suffocated but were first tortured and forced to sign a fake purchase agreement for the coveted property.
The clumsiness of the killers made possible their arrest and the cancellation of this real estate operation. Given the known lack of heirs, environmental organizations mobilized to expropriate and preserve the lands. They’re halfway there: As of 2014, there are 128,000 hectares of forest on the Chaco side that are protected to the maximum: they’re a national park. But the situation is completely different on the Formosa side, where nobody prevents logging or poaching, the shots of which reverberate at great distances.
To keep Qaramtá on safe territory, scientists lure him with captive female jaguars rescued from zoos and circuses at various locations and placed in large pens near the field station. One of them is Tania, with whom Qaramtá had offspring in February 2021: two puppies, one male and one female. The young grow up without human contact and now, separated from their mother, “hunt themselves”, waiting for them to stop growing and it is possible to collar them and set them free.
Tania being transferred to the corral Matias Rebak
When the cubs were born, Tania stopped interacting with Qaramtá, and the biologists brought Isis, a captive-born Brazilian jaguar, there. Given Isis’ lack of interest, they tried a third, Mbareté. When they are in heat, they lure the males in with their mile-long roar. “We believe that there are no (wild) jaguars left in the area because no other came close and Qaramtá showed no signs of fighting (with other males),” says Muñoz.
“With Isis, there is no wave, but with Mbareté, yes, they are in love,” says Estela Castellano, a resident of the La Armonia area, just outside El Impenetrable National Park, in the courtyard of her humble home. Castellano cooks for the tourists who gradually arrive there, attracted by the fauna of this remote park, a five-hour drive from Resistencia, the capital of the Chaco. The final section there is along a dirt road that crosses domestic animals such as sheep, pigs, and horses, and wild animals (such as armadillos and peccaries). The mountain hides the inhabitants, but each stick with a hoop marks the presence of a house or, in some cases, hanging clothes can also be distinguished.
Like in a soap opera, Estela and her husband Esteban tell the different relationships between the king of the Chaco mountains and the different women. “Tania had a wave too, but since she had the puppies she hasn’t given her a ball and now she’s looking for Mbareté,” they explain.
Other residents of La Armonía also provide meals for tourists in their homes or make handicrafts for sale. For a fortnight, they take turns working at the La Fidelidad campsite, which has recently opened in the heart of the park and can be reached in an hour and a half on a dirt road. Seen from the air, it’s impressive: the great green mass of the Chaco Mountains is crossed by this ocher scar.
There are no more than a dozen tourists who spend the night in the park, but their arrival opens a new horizon to this impoverished region of Argentina. “Many people are afraid of jaguars because they say they attack cattle,” admits Darío Samana, the son of small ranchers. The idea of reintroducing the cat was initially met with suspicion by many residents, most of whom have cows from which they obtain milk and food, but the new employment opportunities are helping to change attitudes.
Eyes turn to the example of the vast Esteros del Iberá wetland, which has become one of the most important ecotourism destinations in northern Argentina. The Rewilding Foundation is also working there to reintroduce key species that will allow for the restoration of complex and functional ecosystems. In 2021 they released the first eight jaguars, but the idea is to simultaneously increase populations of giant otters, pampas deer, scarlet macaws and giant anteaters, among other species.
Wildlife viewing along the Bermejo River. Matías Rebak-Rewilding Argentina Foundation
Tania, Isis and Mbareté were all transferred from Iberá. When Qaramtá becomes pregnant, the latter returns to the park in Corrientes and the pups are released there “to increase genetic diversity in the founding nucleus,” explains Muñoz. As in Iberá, the team’s biologists are also working on other projects, such as the release of 40 Yabotí tortoises or long-term plans to allow guanacos and deer to roam freely through these mountains again.