The jaguar had been badly burned to the legs during the fires that ravaged the Brazilian Pantanal.
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Pixabay / Nickbar
Ousado, a five-year-old jaguar badly burned to the legs in the fires that ravaged the Brazilian Pantanal, has returned to its natural habitat after treatment with laser and ozone therapy.
This feline with a beige coat spotted with black was released in the same place where it was collected a little over a month ago, on the bank of a stream in the Encontro das Aguas nature reserve, in the State of Mato Grosso (west-central Brazil).
This reserve has the largest concentration of jaguars in the world, with around 150 specimens.
The Pantanal region, a biodiversity sanctuary and the largest wetland on the planet, has been devastated in recent months by flames after the worst drought in half a century.
The situation only started to improve last week, thanks to the return of the rain.
GPS tracking
In a video released by the NGO Ampara Silvestre, Ousado, when he is released, first sticks his head out of the cage, scans the surroundings, then starts running to disappear under the trees.
All his movements are now tracked by GPS, to ensure that his return to the wild is smooth.
“When we found him, Ousado was in great pain, he couldn't walk,” says Jorge Salomao, the NGO's veterinarian.
Thanks to the laser treatment and ozone therapy, he gained weight “and now he's fine, he ran away, he climbed on an embankment.
We are happy with the result, ”he adds.
The treatment took place at the headquarters of the Nex Institute, an NGO for the protection of felines, in the state of Goias (center), 1,000 km from the Pantanal.
Ousado stayed there for a month, with about twenty other rescued jaguars.
Jair Bolsonaro's policy questioned
Among the felines collected, Amanaci, a female who did not have the same luck as him.
Third-degree burns, she has been undergoing treatment with stem cells for two months.
But Nex Institute vets fear she will never be able to return to her natural habitat and climb trees, as the flames have burned the tendons that allowed her claws to emerge.
From January to September, the fires devastated 23% of the Brazilian part of the Pantanal, which also extends into Paraguay and Bolivia.
Verdant landscapes have been reduced to ashes and images of caimans and other charred animals have toured the world.
Environmentalists have questioned the environmental policies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing him in particular of dismantling public agencies supposed to fight deforestation and arson.
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