Evaluation of a 10-year guanaco reintroduction in the upper belt of central Argentina

BARRI F

Global Re-introduction Perspectives, 2018: Case-studies from Around the Globe

International Union for Conservation of Nature

Lugar: Abu Dhabi; Año: 2018; p. 130 - 133

The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) reintroduction project in the upper belt of the mountains in central Argentina was developed to recover a large native herbivore that historically inhabited the region. Since the Spanish colonization, cattle overgrazing and frequent use of fire to induce grass regrowth had triggered a widespread process of soil erosion, and the plant cover was replaced with exposed bedrock. In 1996 Quebrada del Condorito National Park (31°34?S, 64°50?, 320 Km2; 1700?2800 m a. s. l.) was created, and even though domestic livestock were removed from a large area of the Park, their exclusion caused a disproportionate expansion of a thick-leaved tussock grass at the expense of grazing lawns, reducing local diversity and spatial heterogeneity. In an attempt to control landscape homogenization and at the same time avoid soil erosion processes induced by livestock, in 2007 the guanaco (least concerned in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but locally extinct early in the 19th century), a low-impact grazer, was reintroduced. The reintroduction project involved a continuous monitoring program and was a milestone in the history of reintroduction of wild species in the national system of protected areas in Argentina.