Fires raging in the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland on earth, threaten a nature reserve known to be home to the world’s largest population of jaguars, authorities in central Mato Grosso state warned on Tuesday. -West of Brazil.
“Reinforcements have been sent to fight the fire in the Encontro das Aguas natural park”, near the border with Paraguay, and “are concentrating in the east of the park known to be home to the largest concentration of jaguars in the world », Underlines the press release.
Two women and seven children, whose houses were surrounded by flames, were rescued by rescuers who are also trying to protect the 140 bridges to prevent the populations from becoming isolated, it is added.
The region is home to one of the largest concentrations of birds and caimans on the planet, as well as a colony of jaguars, a species classified as “almost threatened” with extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
This large plain crossed by many rivers has been affected by a record number of fires this year.
There have already been more fires in the Brazilian Pantanal this year (12,102) than in all of 2018 and 2019 combined, according to satellite data collected by the national space agency, INPE.