Safari in Argentina: The Jaguar is Back in the Esteros del Ibera
S ofía Heinonen's eyes carefully scrutinize the horizon. A group of turkey vultures circles in the sky above the pampas. Some distance away, two swamp deer watch the approaching group of riders warily. "He can't be far," says the Argentine biologist, "maybe he snatched an animal there this morning." Slowly her horse starts to move. Heinonen set out that morning with colleagues from her organization, Rewilding Argentina, to track South America's largest predator, the jaguar.
But where has the king of the pampas hidden?? In the partly meter-high marsh grass it seems almost impossible to see one of the animals. Pablo Guerra Aldazabar raises the antenna of his receiver even higher, but no beep is heard. Just yesterday, the zoologist saw a female in the area wearing a radio collar. With his tracking device he tries to track him again today.