Oso Hormiguero (Anteater)
Tatú Carreta
Vicuña
Yacaré Overo
Yaguareté (Jaguar)
Endangerd Argentine Species
A great number of the species of our country are in their way to extintion. The fauna traffic, that takes millions of dollars a year, the deforestation of the lands, and the construction of big hydroelectric dams, are the principal causes of the masive exterminium. These are some of the many animals endangered. They are protected by the law, but if their poaching continues, in few years more there will only remain their names and pictures.
Aguará Guazú (Mane
Wolf)
Oso Hormiguero (Anteater)
Tatú Carreta
Vicuña
Yacaré Overo
Yaguareté (Jaguar)
Aguará Guazú (Mane Wolf)
Scientific Name: Chrysocyon brachyurus.
Inhabiting Places: Formosa, Chaco and Corrientes.
Alimentation: carnivorous, including some fruit.
Young: two per year.
Reason of the exterminium: legends of magic and cure and
sales to some zoos.
Category: protected species.
Its name, from the guraní, means "big
fox", and it is a good description of its appearence: it
looks like a stilt-legged red fox with an erectile mane on the
back of the neck and top of the shoulders. Although it is close
to the height of the gray wolf, it has a much slighter build and
is not a true wolf. Its more than a meter (3 feet) long, it
reaches 40 kilos (80 pounds) in weight, and a it's usually 80
centimeters height (30 inches).
It can be found in Formosa, Chaco and
Corrientes, in open zones, within weedy fields and clumps of
bulrushes (that's a normal landscape in that part of the coutry).
Monogamous, it has only two young per year and although it's
mainly carnivorous, it may include some fruit in its diet. It is
a solitare nocturnal animal, shy and cautious, but swift-running
and may cover wide ranges remote from human habitation.
Its existence is in danger because of different
causes, from the legend of its magical and curative virtues to
the interest it has in zoos as a strange animal. It is not known
how many of them are left in Argentina.
Oso Hormiguero (Anteater)
Pictures.
Scientific Name: Myrmecophaga tridactyla.
Inhabiting Places: Pilcomayo and Iguazu National Parks.
Alimentation: ants and termites; also their eggs and
cocoons, beetle larvae; occasionally fruit (when in captivity)
Young: one per year.
Reason of the exterminium: sales to some zoos or private
collectors.
Category: vulnerable species.
It is also called "yurumí" or
"giant anteater" (to make a difference with its
relations in other parts of the world). It's caracterized by its
hard fur, long and bristly, and with a color varying for black to
white. Its up to 2 meter (7 feet) long, from the long,
cylindrical snout to the end of the bushy, cascading tail, which
is 84 centimeters (35 inches) long. And its tongue is 60
centimeters (24 inches) long. Walks on its knuckles to protect
its sharp claws.
It lives in the argentine north, in places were
its food can be found; the powerful claws on the forefeet and the
long extensible tongue are used to uncover and feed on ants,
termites, and beetle larvae. It uses its claws to tear apart ant
and termite nests and then feeds on them with its viscose tongue.
Its capable of eating 15000 ants in a row.
First the anteater sniffs around for an ant or
termite hill that smells appetizing. Then it makes an opening in
the hill with its sharp, powerful claws. The long tongue flicks
rapidly in and out of the small mouth opening, scooping up the
insects on its sticky surface. It will visit many ant hills and
eat as few as 140 ants per hill. If the anteater preserves the
ant or termite colony, it will be there to provide food in the
future.
It is mainly diurnal, It has only one young per
year, and during the first months, the female carries the child
on her back. Its fur, leather and meat have no comercial value at
all, but they are captured to be sold to zoos or private
collectors. There isn't an exact number of the anteters living in
Argentina.
Tatú Carreta
Scientific Name: Priodontes Maximus.
Inhabiting Places: Chacos' savannas, rainforests and
forests.
Alimentation: larvas and insects.
Young: one per year.
Reason of the exterminium: human assents and sales to some
zoos.
Category: protected species.
It is the biggest living armadillo, it's up to
one meter and a half (5 feet) long, and it can weight up to 60
kilos (120 pounds).
It is a solitaire mammal and strictly
nocturnous, that lives mainly in Chacos' savannas, rainforests
and forests. It feeds on insects and larvas, and has only one
young per year.
The deforestation, agriculture, and cattle,
fruit of the human assents, were the first causes of their quick
disappearence. Later, as it was considered a strange animal and
in the point of dissappearing, its commercial value grew up and
it turned out to be a well codiciated piece for the poachers. The
tatús carreta are protected by the law, and its exportation has
been forbidden. It isn't known how many of them are left in
Argentina.
Vicuña
Pictures.
Scientific Name: Vicugna Vicugna.
Inhabiting Places: argentine nor-west till the natural
reservoir "San Guillermo".
Alimentation: hervivorous.
Young: one per year
Reason of the exterminium: fineness of its wool.
Category: protected species.
They are the smallest of the camel family. They
have long, slender necks, no humps, reddish brown upper coats,
and white bibs and underparts. They reaches up to two meter (7
feet) long, from the head to the point of the tail, and up to one
meter (3 feet) in height. Their expensive fur is orange-red.
Presently, it inhabits in the tableland at the
extremous Nor-west of the Argentina. Its diet is exclusively
hevivorous, and it has only one young per year, that is born
after eleven months of gestation. They generally roam in small
herds, have never been successfully domesticated, but are much
hunted.
The term vicuña is applied to the fabrics
manufactured from the wool of the animal, and also to textile
fabrics made from the wool of the merino sheep in imitation of
natural vicuña. Such fabrics generally resemble serge in weave
but are fuller and softer and have a distinct nap.
Its wool is considered the best of the world
and that is the principal cause of the persecution it suffers,
since the arrival of the spaniards in the american land. In the
time of the Incas, it is thought their were many millions in
South America; in 1960 the total population was not more than
10000 animals. In the natural reservoir "San
Guillermo", in San Juan, have been counted 5 thousand
vicuñas.
Yacaré Overo
Scientific Name: Caiman Latirostris.
Inhabiting Places: Corrientes, Santa Fe, Entre Rios,
Chaco, Formosa and Misiones.
Alimentation: fish, river tortoises, snails, snakes; some
birds and mammals.
Young: 40 to 60 eggs (not every of them become an animal)
per year.
Reason of the exterminium: value of its leather.
Category: threatened species.
This reptile lives in rivers, streams, bogs,
glens and swamps, in the provinces of Corrientes, Santa Fe, Entre
Rios, Chaco, Formosa and Misiones. It's more than two meter (7
feet) long, and weights more than 50 kilos (100 pounds).
It feeds on fish, snails, snakes and river
tortoises; it also captures some birds and mammals. The female
incubates from 40 to 60 eggs over a mound with a diameter of a
meter and a half (5 feet), constructed by herself. During its
breeding it has to bare a large number enemies, but at the adult
age, only the yaguareté dares to attack
him.
It's permanently captured by the poachers
because of the value of its leather. It is thought nowadays only
about 10000 animals are left, and the species could only survive
if its brought up in captivity.
Yaguareté
Pictures.
Scientific Name: Leo Onca Palustris.
Inhabiting Places: Argentine Nor-west and the Iguazu
National Park
Alimentation: carnivorous.
Young: two per year.
Reason of the exterminium: skin's value and fame of being
dangerous for both human beings and cattle.
Category: threatened species.
It is the largest feline in Latin America:
males may measure two meter and a half (8 feet) long and weight
140 kilos (270 pounds). it is similar to the well-known leopards,
although it is usually heavier than them. Overall, the yagureté
has a stocky body; this includes a broad face and short, muscular
legs. In coloration the similarity of the two cats continues,
with the yagureté having fewer, but larger, rosette spots. The
open rosette spots on the yagureté's back and sides have either
one or several small black dots inside, while the leopard's
rosettes have none. The grunting roar of the jaguar is said to
resemble the sound of a large saw cutting through wood.
About the middle of the XIX century, the
yagureté, who is also called jaguar or even tiger, lived in
Buenos Aires and Paraná's delta. Nowadays the few survivors are
in the rainforests and forests of the nor-west of Argentina, and
in the Iguazú National Park. It's carnivorous and solitaire
hunter, it's able to attack and kill as prey the largest animals
of the South American continent (e.g. yacaré
overo). His land may embrace 50 square kilometers (20 square
miles). The males get with the females only in the mate time, and
it has about two young per year.
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This page was last modified on 05 Dic 1996
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