The giant otter: an extinct animal from the country has been reintroduced in the Esteros del Iberá

The wolf or giant otter

It is an animal that has disappeared in Argentina since the middle of the twentieth century.

Now, with the arrival of Alondra, a female of this species from Hungary three months ago and transferred last week to
Iberá National Park, a copy will be reintroduced in the country. The initiative is a joint work of
The Conservation Land Trust (CLT), the Corrientes Government and the National Parks Administration.

Alondra arrived three months ago from Hungary and completed a quarantine in San Cayetano, a town in Corrientes, where she was badessed for reintroduction. Last week, this wolf specimen was transferred to a pre-release pen located on the island of San Alonso, in the Iberá National Park. There, Alondra will go through another period of adaptation and will then be released.

The pre-release enclosure is located on the banks of the Paraná lagoon, about 800 square meters. About half of this fence occupies an aquatic part and contains samples of the environment in which Alondra will inhabit in the future. She is very curious about the environment and spends many hours swimming and playing. He had already hunted his first fish and even built a burrow in the mountain.

The corral that respects the natural habitat of the animal was built by the Rewilding team of CLT Argentina, which directs the project of reintroduction of the species in this ecosystem, in collaboration with the Government of Corrientes and the National Parks Administration. We can talk about reintroduction because the sleight of hand has been extinguished in the province since the middle of the twentieth century.

Alondra is a seven-year-old wolf (Ptenoura brasiliensis). It was offered by the Budapest Zoo, the Hungarian capital, to integrate the project to recover the main aquatic predator of the Iberá ecosystem.

Sebastián Di Martino, conservation director at CLT Argentina, said: "The goal of this project is to achieve a more comprehensive and functional Iberá from an ecological point of view.

This vast protected area, which includes the national park and the Iberá Provincial Park, offers very good conditions for the reintroduction of the species because, because of its "conservation" category, it no longer presents any of the threats that threaten it. Led to its extinction. "

The giant otter extinct in Corrientes in the mid-twentieth century, mainly due to changes in its habitat and poaching related to the use of its skin. This aquatic mammal, which is an important ecotourism resource based on wildlife viewing in many areas of its current distribution, is considered extinct in Argentina and threatened in most countries where it is present.

The wolf reintroduction project is part of CLT Argentina's Rewilding program, carried out in collaboration with the provincial government, the National Parks Administration, and possible thanks to the collaboration of Senasa, the Secretariat for the Environment and Environment. Budapest Zoo, Hungary. "The project requires years of work largely due to the social nature of the species, and we need to get more copies to form family groups that can be scattered across different regions," Di Martino said.