RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Leonardo Dicaprio surprised his social networks with a publication in which he highlighted Argentina for the reintroduction and birth in the wild of two jaguars in the Esteros del Iberá. The actor, who is in a relationship with the Argentine model Camila Morrone, is in charge of a foundation dedicated to the defense of the environment.
This Wednesday, January 27th, in his account of Instagram, the Oscar winner made a post in which he celebrated that jaguars “return to roam freely in the wetlands of Iberá” after 70 years of absence.
The jaguar is the largest South American carnivore and has suffered an alarming retraction in the last two centuries. In Argentina, it lost more than 95% of its range and today only at least 250 animals survive, and it remains a species classified as “critically endangered”. The jaguar that inhabits this region of America is the protagonist of an effort shared by the foundation Rewilding Argentina and the national and provincial governments of Currents, which undertook its reintroduction into the Iberá ecosystem, where it became extinct due to hunting.
In this regard, DiCaprio congratulated the government of Argentina, the National Parks of Argentina, the province of Corrientes and the Rewilding Foundation and Tompkins Conservation for their commitment to rebuild this emblematic species. In the publication, which has more than 88,000 “likes”, he also thanked “the local communities of Iberá and all the people of Corrientes who have supported this unprecedented effort and who welcome the return of the jaguar.” At the same time, he related that he committed himself to helping the Tompkins Conservation Foundation.
The 46-year-old actor made reference to the birth of two cubs, the third litter born in the wild in the Corrientes estuaries, whose mother, the Brazilian Mariua, gave birth at the Reintroduction Center established by Rewilding in an area of Iberá called San Alonso .
Since last January 7, Karai and Porã, born in mid-September 2020, and their mother, Mariua, run free in the middle of the Esteros del Iberá, the place from which the species was uprooted seven decades ago, a victim of hunters and the advance of man, who took it out of its habitat to leave it exposed on the roads where many jaguars were killed by car.
“With the release of the female jaguar Mariua and her two cubs born at the Jaguar Reintroduction Center, Karai and Pora, Argentina has taken an important step to ensure the future of the jaguar in Argentina, where the species is critically endangered” DiCaprio remarked.
“The return of the jaguar will also help restore the full health of the ecosystem in Iberá, as did the return of the wolves to Yellowstone in the United States,” added the actor in the publication that was accompanied by a video that features almost 300,000 reproductions. “Argentina is adopting this important reconstruction strategy as a tool to combat the extinction crisis and move towards a healthier, savage and equitable planet,” he celebrated.
The Government of Corrientes and the Rewilding Argentina Foundation had already managed to reintroduce other species such as the pampas deer, giant anteater, scarlet macaw, giant otter or collared peccary. “A project like this, I dare say, is unique in the world”, highlighted the director of the Iberá Project, Marisi López.