Twenty days after his release in Impenetrable National Parkthe satellite necklace that followed in her footsteps Acaiyoung woman YaguarityThe broadcast stopped. It was October 2025. For hours, teams Argentina Wildlife Rehabilitation Foundationthe National Parks Administration and Chaco government They tracked her signal by air and land. Finally, they found the device submerged in water Bermejo Riverwithout any trace of animal.
Mauro in Rizzi
“We are sure they killed her and threw the necklace into the river.“, He says Sebastian Di MartinoConservation Manager Rewilding Argentina. “There are even accounts from neighbors that agree with this hypothesis.“.
The complaint has already been submitted to Federal justiceAnd a lot National parks like Rewilding They constituted themselves as plaintiffs. However, apart from the judicial file, the death of… Acai He explained something deeper: Poaching continues as a practice that is as deep-rooted as it is silentWho lives between the folds of the mountain and the indifference of the state.
Since 2019, Rewilding Argentina work with National parks To restore Yaguarity in Which cannot be penetratedThis species is practically extinct. That year only one male appeared. Cartomawhich became the beginning of an ecological and cultural restoration process: the first females arrived, there were offspring in captivity, and at the beginning of this year, the first females arrived Wild birth has been confirmed within four decades. release Acai It was the natural continuation of that story of hope.
But his journey changed course. The collar recorded that the female left the park in an easterly direction, heading towards… Place Los ManantialesIt is an area inhabited by small families of livestock. Difference from Rewilding They settled there to accompany the population and avoid conflicts. “Di Martino explains that the jaguar does not attack humans, but rather prefers wild prey. In cases where pets may be preyed upon, we work with neighbors to improve herd management. What we have to do is learn to live together, not annihilate“.
Twenty days later, the silence of the necklace confirmed the opposite. “The jaguar is critically endangered. This case represents a major setback: not only because we lost a copy of it, but because it represents an emotional and symbolic blow to the entire project.“, He says De Martino. “We caught up with Acaí because it has a tracker. The unusual thing is not that he died: the unusual thing is that we know him“.
condition Acai It’s not isolated. In the past three years there have been at least three documented episodes of Jaguar hunting in Formosa and Shako. In 2022, Hunter Clorinda He uploaded a video with the dead animal on social networks: he was arrested and sentenced. In 2024, in Estanislao del CampoAnother group of men killed and dismembered a specimen, one of the last remaining specimens in the province. The same court sentenced them this year to two years in prison, in what the organizations described as “Historic rulingAlthough it is not sufficient.
““What happens is no one knew this before,” says Nicolas Lodeiro Ocampo, founder and president of the Yagoretti Network. Now we find out why fishermen photograph or upload photos. But the fishing remains exactly the same. We are witnessing, with documentation, the extinction of the jaguar in Argentina.“.
according to LoderoThe reasons are expected: livestock predation, fear, and the absence of coexistence policies. “If there are loose cows, the jaguar will hunt them. If you leave the park and touch a pet, it will likely die. There is no working protocol when a cat leaves the protection area. When officials change, no one knows what to do. National Parks are primarily responsible for coordinating this“.
The reason is ultimately structural: the advance of the agricultural frontier over the boreal forests. In recent decades, land clearing has destroyed more than Three million hectares Indigenous people in Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Formosa and Salta. Each jaguar needs approx 40 thousand hectares of continuous forest Living. Today only a few remain 250 across the countryspread among Missions, Yungas and Chaco is great.
he Yaguarity It has been announced National Natural Monument In 2001, the highest category of legal protection. National and regional laws prohibit hunting, seizure or trafficking, and penalties range from two months to three years in prison. However, experts agree that the legislation is outdated. ““For the National Wildlife Code, the rabbit and the jaguar are the same thing,” says Lodeiro. “We are trying to amend it so that species declared as natural monuments are subject to more severe and effective penalties.”“.
from Specialized Financial Unit for Environmental Affairs (UFEMA)its owner Carlos Rollero Recognizes progress and limits: “There is greater public awareness and a quicker reaction when an event occurs, but we are still behind. There is no single channel at the national level to receive and regulate complaints: each case is handled within its jurisdiction. What happened at Akai, as at Formosa, are facts that are investigated as they happen. What we lack is prevention“.
This prevention, according to experts, does not depend only on justice or monitoring, but rather on… A comprehensive coexistence policy. Plan includes Rapid compensation for livestock losses, Technical advice, Regional presence and Environmental education. “Lodeiro insists that without this, the conflict will remain as it is. Nothing fundamental has changed. These guys could go to prison, but Jaguar is already dead“.
In reports Rewilding Argentina And who Red yogurtThe trends are clear: wild populations are steadily declining, and the few cores that remain do so in isolation. in Which cannot be penetratedEach version released represents years of work and enormous logistical resources. Technicians, biologists and park rangers patrol hundreds of kilometers of forest, monitoring movements with antennas and flying over areas where vegetation and silence cover everything. “Lodeiro says that the animals die, but when they are hunted, a stress factor is added that accelerates their disappearance. The failure is clear: the lack of a national plan to coexist with them“.
At the same time, local communities live in a state of uncertainty and fear. ““Families haven’t seen a jaguar for years,” Lodeiro says. “And suddenly a cow or a goat shows up and eats it, and they get scared. They do what they think they should do to protect themselves or avoid losses.”“This reaction, understood from rural logic, is the last link in a system that has never offered them another choice.
condition Acai He made the news because he was wearing a necklace. If he had not had it, his death would have gone unnoticed, like many others. “We are witnesses, unfortunately, to something that has always happened“, he sums up Lodero.
This statement contains a paradox: The more we learn about tigers, the closer their end comes..
to De MartinoHowever, vision is opportunity. “Efforts must be redoubled. Not just with more monitoring, but with more education, and more dialogue with communities. Many hunting episodes are the result of ignorance, not evil. But the result is the same: we lose a life and we all go backwards“.
story Acai It is painful because it symbolizes a missed opportunity: Learn to coexist with species that were once dominant in the boreal forest and that today live amidst fear, misunderstanding, and a lack of sustainable policies. His death, like the echo from the mountain, forces us to look directly at the truth we would rather not see: Jaguar hunting is not a memory of the past. It is the present that is still secretly written in Chaco’s heart.
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