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Late in the afternoon in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso. On the São Lourenço River, information flows from boat to boat that a jaguar is surrounded by fire on the edge of a tributary of the course, upstream. At a dock in the town of Porto Jofre, in Poconé, 290 kilometers from Cuiabá, the “pilot” Vandir García, el Cabello, tells the Estadão team that he can reach the animal in 45 minutes with his boat.
This is the largest series of fires in the region in the last two decades, reports the Inpe (National Institute for Space Research). The flames covered 2 million hectares, an area equivalent to ten times the territories of the municipalities of São Paulo and Rio together, highlights the Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources). “The fire this year here is very angry. The animals cannot escape,” says Cabelo, a 49-year-old Paraguayan who has been in transportation services on large waterways for 30 years.
On the journey to locate the jaguar, the “piloteiro” also shows discomfort with the level of the loom. The horizon in the stretch of the river takes on a reddish hue and the heat becomes more intense. Fires of light arise from one side and the other. Heavy smoke covers the sky. Soot is everywhere. Visibility is limited. In the more open sections you can see tuiuiús, kingfishers and cormorants in the backwaters.
Before leaving the dock on the seaplane piloted by Cabelo, on Friday, Estadão assured that a network made up of neighbors, volunteers, biologists from an animal protection NGO and inn owners would be informed of the location of the jaguar as soon as it completes another mission of rescue on the spot.
After a few minutes of travel, the boat enters the Corixo Negro river, which flows into São Lourenço, an area of constant presence of alligators and anacondas. The arm is shallower and carelessness can catch the glass at the headboard.
It only took 35 minutes for the team to spot the jaguar stretched out on a stretch of the left bank. It is a young male. He is about 2 years old and weighs about 100 kilos, Hair estimates. A passing man from the riverbank threw a piranha at the jaguar, which did not have the strength to feed.
From the voadeira, the report records the moment the animal gets up, walks, and then stops moving. The legs are wounded, raw. Licking the underside of the legs removes the burned skin in an attempt to alleviate suffering. Possibly the jaguar made a great effort to reach the riverbank, an area where it could save itself. Tapirs, capybaras, snakes, deer and birds die from suffocation or burns while still in the forest.
Estadão waits for the group of animal rescuers so that the jaguar does not disappear. An hour later, the members of the network join. The mission they were on was unsuccessful. Just the day before, the group even used tranquilizers on an animal that was in agony, but the animal got scared and returned to the forest without a trace.
The operation to remove a jaguar from its habitat, even weakened, is complex and dangerous. It requires patience. The rescue group is led by Eduarda Fernandes Amaral, 20, born in Cuiabá. She is a leader in Porto Jofre who interacts with inn owners, the Fire Department, NGOs, and environmental agents of the Mato Grosso government. “The Pantanal is too big for the few firefighters that came,” he says.
Scared
Veterinarians soon realize that the case of the black Corixo jaguar is critical. Scared, thin and without strength, she has trouble standing. The rescue group boat and the guide’s fly boat are maneuvered to force her to move to a specific location on the river bank. From there, a vet would try to break free from the branches and hit a blowpipe with a sedative.
The animal resists and takes refuge under the roots of a ravine. The maneuvers continue for an hour. Finally, the 36-year-old veterinarian Jorge Salomão, from the NGO Ampara Animal, fires the blowgun to reach the jaguar’s bloodstream. In ten minutes, the feline “sleeps”, with its eyes open. From then on, another race against the clock begins to suspend it and place it in a cage, where first aid will be performed.
A base installed in an inn on the outskirts of Transpantaneira, a road that passes through the region, receives the animal temporarily, until another stage of the rescue process begins. It is necessary to provide a helicopter or truck to take the animal to treatment. Finally, the jaguar was transferred by helicopter of the Navy to a specialized center of the Federal University of Mato Grosso. The last veterinary bulletin said that he resists.
The Pantaneiros themselves join an offensive without many resources and structure in defense of the Pantanal. The inn owners opened the doors of the rooms and made seaplanes available to biologists and veterinarians of the animal protection entities that help move the tourism industry. “The consequences of the fire are not only getting worse because there was a union. We got together,” says Marcos, manager of an inn in Porto Jofre. The pantaneiros decided to save the jaguars alone, a symbol of a supportive Brazil, still wild and fascinating.
In a note, the Defense says that the government acts “without sparing efforts” in the fight against the fire and that the sources of fire have been reduced. The folder noted that he put a helicopter to help rescue jaguars and hires 200 soldiers. The Environment Ministry says it sent 5 planes, 2 helicopters, 80 vehicles and 400 brigades.
The information is from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
