The Red Yaguareté formally made requests for access to public information to learn details of the transfer of the jaguar Pará and her two cubs.
The operation was carried out months ago following the appearance of Pará in urban areas of Puerto Iguazú.
This was agreed upon by an inter-institutional team that managed to transfer the jaguar along with her cubs to the Green Corridor of the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve.
However, shortly after the release, the Ministry of Ecology of Misiones acknowledged not knowing the whereabouts of the cubs.
In light of this, the Red Yaguareté organization considered the official explanations disseminated to be insufficient and now requests more information on the transfer of the jaguar.
The requests were directed to the Ministry of Ecology of Misiones, the National Parks Administration, CONICET, and other areas that participated in the operation.
At the time, the decision was agreed upon by various institutions that make up the Paranaense Jungle Subcommittee for the Conservation of the Jaguar:
- Ministry of Ecology and Renewable Natural Resources of Misiones
- Misionero Institute of Biodiversity (IMiBio)
- Jaguar Project (CeIBA-CONICET)
- Azara Foundation (Centro Güirá Oga)
- Administration of National Parks
- Argentine Bird Association
They demand the lack of technical documentation on the transfer of the jaguars
Nicolás Lodeiro Campo, director of the Red Yaguareté, explained that they resorted to this legal tool due to the absence of clear answers.
“We want to know what happened with a technical report that shows with evidence what occurred. Not with a comment or a superficial post,” stated the representative.
The intervention on the female was carried out after repeated complaints about her presence in urban areas of Puerto Iguazú.
The animal was recorded in backyards of homes, which caused concern among residents.
According to the authorities, the relocation of the jaguar Pará and her two cubs was an exceptional measure adopted in response to a critical situation that endangered their lives.
At the time, they asserted that other management alternatives had not yielded results.
However, Lodeiro Campo warned that the transfer of a jaguar should not be taken as a usual solution.
“When a jaguar feeds near urban areas, the response cannot be to automatically capture it and take it to another place. That is always bad,” said the director of the organization.
The transfer, contraindicated in jaguar cubs
The situation worsened when it was confirmed that the female had cubs of very young age. From the Red Yaguareté, they emphasized that the transfer of jaguar with small cubs “is absolutely contraindicated” and that there are no similar precedents in the region.
“No translocations of more than one hundred and fifty kilometers in a straight line are done with cubs of that size,” emphasized Lodeiro Campo.
The organization especially questioned the lack of precise information about the state of the cubs.
After the release in the Biosphere Reserve Yabotí, there were no public records confirming the whereabouts of the cubs.
“It was acknowledged in an official statement that they did not know how the cubs were. That is very serious in a case of this type,” warned the director.
The organization also questioned aspects of the technical procedure:
- Absence of publicly disseminated camera trap images
- Lack of detailed technical reports on the operation
- Nonexistence of joint communications between institutions
- Deletion of some previously published official messages
“There are always photos, there are always reports, there are always joint communications. This time there was nothing, and some even were taken down,” assured Lodeiro Campo, who described the official messages as “not serious.”
There is concern about the territory of origin
The Red Yaguareté expressed concern about the long-term consequences of the transfer of these jaguars in the Puerto Península area.
Lodeiro Campo recalled that “Pará” was a resident female and that her removal opens the door to the entry of other specimens in an area where the same conflicts persist.
“If what caused the problem is not corrected, it will happen again,” the representative warned.
The organization requested to know what measures are being implemented to prevent new similar episodes in the area of origin.
The official version of the Ministry of Ecology maintains that the transfer was an exceptional measure adopted in response to a critical situation.
According to the statement released in December, the monitoring continues through a satellite collar placed on the adult specimen, patrols, and camera traps.
Ecology clarified that it is not possible to place tracking devices on the cubs due to their growth stage.
The Ministry emphasized that the data on the release site is strictly confidential, as its dissemination could compromise the process.
For the Red Yaguareté, that explanation is not enough. “Hopefully there is evidence that shows that the cubs are well and that’s it. But today we don’t have it,” concluded Lodeiro Campo, who anticipated that they will advance through other institutional channels if they do not receive clear answers within the legal deadlines.
