Wildlife managers are introducing cats and tracking them in El Impenetrable National Park
Wildlife managers are collaring jaguars in a national park in northeast Argentina as part of a larger effort to learn more about the cats and increase wildlife connectivity with parts of neighboring Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay. El Impenetrable National Park, which has only been open to visitors for eight years, lies in an area of the Gran Chaco, the second-largest forest in South America. Many wildlife species’ populations there have dropped due to poaching and deforestation in the last few decades, but conservationists are trying to stymie this loss and improve connection between El Impenetrable and Iberánational parks as well as the Formosa Nature Preserve in the area. Managers have collared three males in El Impenetrable. Wildlife managers first saw the most recent male jaguar (Panthera onca) that they captured and collared in El Impenetrable in 2022 in Formosa. The animal naturally dispersed from Formosa to El Impenetrable, where managers collared it. Managers also introduced two female jaguars to the national park.
