Re-introduction of the giant anteater in Iberá Nature Reserve, Corrientes, Argentina

JIMÉNEZ PÉREZ, IGNACIO; DELGADO, ALICIA; DI BLANCO, YAMIL E.; ABUÍN, RAFAEL; ANTÚNEZ, BERTA; GALETTO, EMANUEL; PEÑA, JORGE; SOLÍS, GUSTAVO; SPØRRING, KARINA L.; HEINONEN, SOFÍA

Global Re-introduction Perspectives: 2016. Case-studies from around the globe

IUCN/SSC Re-introduction Specialist Group & Environment Agency-ABU DHABI

Lugar: Abu Dhabi; Año: 2016; p. 205 - 210

The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is a widely distributed neotropicalspecies, listed as ?Vulnerable? in both the IUCN Red List of Threatened Speciesand the Argentinean Red List. Across its range it occupies diverse habitat typesincluding grasslands, savannas and forests, where it feeds on ants and termites.Several authors refer to the historical presence of giant anteaters in Corrientes Province and its extinction around the middle of the 20th century due to a combination of widespread commercial/subsistence hunting and a cattle ranching tradition based on the frequent use of fires and dogs. The Iberá Nature Reserve (INR) is a 13,000 km2 multiple use protected area that includes a diverse mosaic of marshlands, open grasslands, savannas and small forests. When INR was established in 1983, provincial park-rangers started to enforce huntingprohibitions, remnant wildlife populations recovered, and several authorsproposed the re-introduction of extirpated fauna. Following this recommendation,in 2006 the government of Corrientes and CLT started the first world-wideexperience aimed to restore an extinct population of giant anteaters.