Sao Paulo's pumas under attack as 'stone jungle' threatens rainforest
Apartment blocks and shopping centers sprout like mushrooms around a wild cat sanctuary that shelters pumas recovering from injuries suffered at the hands of mankind in Brazil's Sao Paolo state.
The Mata Ciliar refuge stretches over the equivalent of 40 football fields just 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the state capital Sao Paulo -- Latin America's biggest metropolis.
Twenty-five pumas and 10 jaguars are receiving treatment at the center -- including Barreiro, a five-year-old puma named after the semi-rural neighborhood where he was found caught in a trap made with a steel cable.
Barreiro is being treated for a deep cut to the hip.
"Due to the advancement of urbanization into its natural habitat, when the puma moves, it gets lost between roads, gated communities and other human interventions," Mata Ciliar president Jorge Bellix told AFP.
As its habitat shrinks in step with human expansion, the puma is forced to move closer to settlements to find food -- which may include pets and livestock, as its natural diet of deer and smaller wild animals gets diminished.
The big cats risk being run over by cars, electrocuted by security fences or trapped in snares set by either hunters trying to catch wild boar or residents warding off predators.
Some are poached for their skins or as trophies.
"If this continues, we will unfortunately witness the extinction of several (animal) species within a few years," said Bellix, whose refuge has treated some 32,000 creatures since it was founded nearly 30 years ago.
- 'Stone jungle' -
Mata Ciliar also houses monkeys and maned wolves, and is located within the vast Mata Atlantica forest in a country with some of the highest wild cat diversity in the world.
But just a few kilometers away looms the grey expanse of Sao Paulo, a metropolis of 21 million people nicknamed the "stone jungle."
"The situation is critical: the animals of Sao Paulo are losing the war against urbanization," said veterinarian Cristina Harumi, who helped save Barreiro and hopes he can be returned to the wild soon.
The puma, sitting as it does at the top of the food chain, is considered a bioindicator: its disappearance would be an alarming sign of the extent of environmental degradation, she added.
The puma, also known as mountain lions, is listed as "near threatened" in Brazil by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains the "Red List of Threatened Species," while mountain lion sub-species outside the Amazon basin are considered "vulnerable."
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News.com.au
20 hours ago
- News.com.au
Sao Paulo's pumas under attack as 'stone jungle' threatens rainforest
Apartment blocks and shopping centers sprout like mushrooms around a wild cat sanctuary that shelters pumas recovering from injuries suffered at the hands of mankind in Brazil's Sao Paolo state. The Mata Ciliar refuge stretches over the equivalent of 40 football fields just 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the state capital Sao Paulo -- Latin America's biggest metropolis. Twenty-five pumas and 10 jaguars are receiving treatment at the center -- including Barreiro, a five-year-old puma named after the semi-rural neighborhood where he was found caught in a trap made with a steel cable. Barreiro is being treated for a deep cut to the hip. "Due to the advancement of urbanization into its natural habitat, when the puma moves, it gets lost between roads, gated communities and other human interventions," Mata Ciliar president Jorge Bellix told AFP. As its habitat shrinks in step with human expansion, the puma is forced to move closer to settlements to find food -- which may include pets and livestock, as its natural diet of deer and smaller wild animals gets diminished. The big cats risk being run over by cars, electrocuted by security fences or trapped in snares set by either hunters trying to catch wild boar or residents warding off predators. Some are poached for their skins or as trophies. "If this continues, we will unfortunately witness the extinction of several (animal) species within a few years," said Bellix, whose refuge has treated some 32,000 creatures since it was founded nearly 30 years ago. - 'Stone jungle' - Mata Ciliar also houses monkeys and maned wolves, and is located within the vast Mata Atlantica forest in a country with some of the highest wild cat diversity in the world. But just a few kilometers away looms the grey expanse of Sao Paulo, a metropolis of 21 million people nicknamed the "stone jungle." "The situation is critical: the animals of Sao Paulo are losing the war against urbanization," said veterinarian Cristina Harumi, who helped save Barreiro and hopes he can be returned to the wild soon. The puma, sitting as it does at the top of the food chain, is considered a bioindicator: its disappearance would be an alarming sign of the extent of environmental degradation, she added. The puma, also known as mountain lions, is listed as "near threatened" in Brazil by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains the "Red List of Threatened Species," while mountain lion sub-species outside the Amazon basin are considered "vulnerable."
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Lamb almost starves to death after being locked in Mount Gambier skate park
A newborn lamb is recovering from almost starving to death after being locked in a Mount Gambier skate park by a council employee for two days. A statement from the City of Mount Gambier council said the lamb and two other larger lambs were found wandering close to traffic on Jubilee Highway East on Sunday and then locked inside the nearby Dimjalla skate park by a ranger that night. In a post on Facebook that she described as an open letter to the council, wildlife rescuer Julia Dangerfield said she noticed the male lamb in distress about 11am on Tuesday. She called the council to let them know the lamb, which still had its umbilical cord attached, was "hypothermic, non-responsive, and unable to move". A ranger came and let Ms Dangerfield look after the lamb, which she gave milk to and warmed up overnight at her house on Tuesday. She then passed it onto the Orphan Lamb Rescue Farm — an organisation that looks after orphaned and abandoned lambs in nearby Glencoe. In a video Ms Dangerfield posted online, the lamb can be seen writhing around on the ground. Warning: The following video contains images of the lamb in distress. Orphan Lamb Rescue Farm president and founder, Rebecca Alexander, said the lamb was less than a week old and appeared to be starving because it was not given any milk. She said it was likely having a fit because of a low blood-sugar level. "They tend to go downhill very quickly when they don't get regular milk at his age. "We're hoping that's all it is and that it hasn't done any internal damage." The temperature dipped down to 4 degrees Celsius overnight in Mount Gambier on Sunday night and 5C on Monday night. Ms Alexander said the lamb had started drinking milk from a bottle and standing up. "He looks really well," she said. "The wildlife carer's done a fantastic job." Unlike Ms Dangerfield, Ms Alexander was not critical of the council ranger's actions. "I guess it's something that the council doesn't deal with very often, and so they probably don't have any type of facilities to take the sheep in," Ms Alexander said. "I'm assuming they thought locking it in a skate park kept them safe and off the road. "I think the main thing that could have been done is hay and water put out immediately for them and then the little one be taken in because he was one that definitely needed milk." Ms Dangerfield called on the council to investigate the incident. The council said the welfare of animals was a priority "and we remain committed to acting swiftly when animals are in need". "We're pleased to report that all three lambs are currently safe and recovering," it said. "Council extends its sincere thanks to the community members who supported the animals during this time." The two larger lambs have been taken to a farm. A fourth lamb was found near the Mount Gambier showgrounds, also in the city's east, on Sunday. But Ms Alexander did not believe it was connected with the other three, since it was used to being fed by humans. "He's very, very friendly," she said. "He's used to the bottle. The dog doesn't scare him. So obviously he's been hand-raised already." Lambs raised by the Orphan Lamb Rescue Farm are only adopted out to people who plan to keep them as pets. None of the rescued lambs had ear tags.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
Australia's 'guerilla rewilders' skirt rules and take conservation into own hands
John Wamsley is considered the grandfather of rewilding in Australia. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) Amid an extinction crisis, some amateur conservationists are taking matters into their own hands, releasing threatened animals on their properties. It's skirting rules and worrying scientists. But the guerilla rewilders say it's too late to wait for permission. It's the early 1980s and the grandfather of rewilding in Australia, John Wamsley, is rescuing native animals from extinction. One of those is the near-threatened brush-tailed bettong. Dr Wamsley obtained some of the small kangaroo-like marsupials and set them free on his property. According to Dr Wamsley, his sanctuary at Warrawong in the Adelaide Hills contained more than half the world's remaining population of these special bettongs at the time. Enclosed within the feral-proof fence, with no predators, they began to breed and breed and breed. Soon, there were simply too many to contain on the property. John Wamsley is considered the grandfather of rewilding in Australia. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) "I had to either let them destroy themselves or shoot 75 per cent of them," Dr Wamsley says. He decided to shoot them. "I probably shot half of the western brushtail bettongs left in the world that day. I had tears in my eyes doing it, but there was nothing I could do." This was the first chapter of Australia's rewilding story. But it was far from the last. Australia is now home to a number of unauthorised projects trying to repopulate the continent with endangered animals. It's called guerilla rewilding. And the issues that plagued Dr Wamsley continue to plague some of the attempts today. On a property two hours west of Melbourne, Roy Pails is on a similar mission to rewild his property. Over two years Mr Pails painstakingly built a feral-proof fence around 80 acres of land he owns, dubbing the area Sunset Sanctuary. He introduced native mammals such as bandicoots, bettongs and potoroos. But there's just one problem. Roy Pails created Sunset Sanctuary two hours west of Melbourne. ( ABC: Patrick Stone ) He didn't have any kind of approval to set the animals free. His animal licence says they need to be caged. "There's no rule saying you can't put them in a big cage," Mr Pails quips. "So I thought, well, I've done the right thing. I've got the animals in a big cage. They're free roaming and they're happy." But that's not how Victoria's environment department sees it. "They don't like what I've done now apparently," Mr Pails says. This is not the first time he has had a run-in with the department. In his previous life as a pet shop owner, Mr Pails pleaded guilty to a number of breaches of the terms of his wildlife licence. That included three counts of selling wildlife he didn't have a licence for and two counts of displaying protected wildlife at his shop. Now, Mr Pails has inadvertently joined an international movement of rogue rewilders who are sidestepping regulations and taking the extinction crisis into their own hands. Scientists warn that this practice, commonly referred to as guerilla or rogue rewilding, risks harming animals and does little for biodiversity. "I think that's the real danger … you create a sort of cowboy world where people can do whatever they like and you don't actually get good outcomes," says Richard Kingsford, an ecologist from UNSW, who runs one of the biggest official rewilding projects in Australia. It can result in the starvation and inbreeding of animals, but it also poses major risks for Australia's biosecurity, the professor says. As you enter Mr Pails's property, you're greeted by an enormous sign: "Welcome to Sunset Sanctuary. Wild lives matter." Mr Pails has a throng of supporters for what he's done at Sunset Sanctuary who donate money and offer support on his social media page. "We could protect so many more endangered animals if we can get rid of some of this paperwork," he says. Mr Pails says he knows of other rogue rewilders who are yet to be discovered by the department and are watching his case with trepidation. One of those individuals spoke to the ABC under the condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from the department. "The ship for purists, 'only trained scientists can do this' … that ship has sailed. We just have to start acting rather than talking," they said. A history of guerilla rewilding Guerilla rewilding is the act of introducing native animals to an area without the permission of a regulatory body such as a state environment department. There have been examples of this overseas — there's the infamous "beaver bomber" of Belgium, lynxes being released into the Scottish Highlands, and the suspicious re-emergence of the UK's native wild boars. There's usually a libertarian or anti-red-tape element to the practice; people fed up with regulators' often risk-averse approach to restoring nature or, in this case, saving threatened and endangered species. John Wamsley is considered the grandfather of rewilding in Australia. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) One of the most famous Australian examples of this is conservationist John Wamsley's rewilding work in the 1980s. John Wamsley is considered the grandfather of rewilding in Australia. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) "I think there were about 40 government departments or something I had to get approval from, and that takes time … What I decided to do after that was just all the time was to build those sanctuaries without approval," Dr Wamsley says. John Wamsley is considered the grandfather of rewilding in Australia. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) "And that way it's a lot easier to gain forgiveness than it is to gain approval, especially if you can get the media onside." John Wamsley was a major innovator in the conservation space and a voice for threatened species when very few people seemed to care. He was a major inspiration to Mr Pails. "If he hadn't started, some of those animals wouldn't be here," Mr Pails says. And so he set about making his own sanctuary. In 2018, Mr Pails carefully studied how to construct a feral-proof fence via the internet and enlisted his family's help. By 2020, he started sourcing animals for his project. Mr Pails was able to obtain endangered Australian marsupials using a Victorian advanced wildlife licence, typically used to keep pets. While the animals were legally sourced, what Mr Pails did with them next exposes a major loophole for people looking to rewild their properties. He released the animals inside the feral-proof-fenced area, where they roam and breed freely. And while that may sound idyllic, it poses all kinds of headaches for regulators and scientists. The loophole is in question, as is the health and welfare of the animals in projects like Mr Pails's. Trading animals Rewilders trade animals such as bandicoots in what's been described as a bartering system between sanctuaries around Australia. They are sourced from conservation-minded sanctuaries that also have free-roaming endangered Australian marsupials inside feral-proofed fences. But it turns out those sanctuaries aren't always paying close attention to where their animals end up. The ABC approached some of the sanctuaries that supplied Mr Pails with animals. Potoroo Palace, based in Merimbula, claims to have not known the animals were for a personal rewilding project and said it was difficult to know a different state's licence conditions. This is despite the owner of the sanctuary, Alexandra Seddon, commenting on a Facebook post of Mr Pails, saying she was happy the animals were part of the "brilliant" project. Animals roam and breed inside feral-proof areas. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) Rewilders trade animals in a bartering system between sanctuaries. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) Softfoot Marsupial Sanctuary in South Australia, speaking more broadly, says it is typically satisfied with detailed images of a feral-proof fence and a licence number of the purchaser. It admits that mistakes have been made in the past: animals they sold were not looked after adequately and badly constructed fences allowed ferals into the sanctuaries where they were homed. "You do the best you can, and if it goes wrong you just regret it," owner Sandy Retallick said. These were legal transactions, but Mr Pails's licence required him to keep the animals caged. This is Wild Deserts, a feral-proof-fenced sanctuary in the desert of north-west New South Wales. It's home to some of Australia's most threatened desert mammals. And it's where rewilding becomes serious science. Professor Richard Kingsford is a rewilding expert. ( ABC: Bill Ormonde ) Today, Richard Kingsford is preparing to capture and release golden bandicoots. The professor has been in the rewilding space for decades and is considered an expert on the topic. Brush-tailed bettongs are a key species for the Wild Deserts project. ( ABC: Bill Ormonde ) He says it can take several years to get approval for rewilding projects — and he thinks that's appropriate. "I guess in the sort of grey area where people have sanctuaries and they're moving animals around, it just doesn't seem right that they're able to do that." Roy Pails works on the fence at Sunset Sanctuary. ( ABC: Patrick Stone ) Professor Kingsford has serious concerns about Mr Pails's sanctuary. "It sounds like it's not nearly a big enough area. Roy Pails won't be giving up on his dream of running his own rewilding project. ( ABC: Patrick Stone ) "They're all either feeding on vegetation or perhaps invertebrates, so there will be a lot of competition going on, and I'd be really worried about their long-term welfare and their survival. "I've got lots of questions about that, and they're not good questions." Professor Kingsford also has biosecurity concerns. "Are they the animals that live in that environment or have you got them from another part of Australia? Those are real challenges in terms of pest species." A group of scientists from the United Kingdom took to the journal Nature late last year, expressing their frustration at guerilla rewilders in the publication's reader correspondence. "They erode public trust in evidence-based conservation, they inflame polarised discourse around the already-sensitive issue of species reintroduction, and they undermine the leadership of public environmental agencies," they wrote. The group advocated for evidence-based, ecologically sustainable conservation. "Ultimately, deliberative collective action, although slower, will be more productive and is more likely to produce lasting conservation gains." What happens over time? It's night at Sunset Sanctuary and Mr Pails is preparing to give out food supplements to the animals in the sanctuary. He's currently experiencing drought and says he has no choice but to offer feed. Mr Pails has big concerns about overpopulation and the inbreeding of his animals. In this 80-acre space, he struggles to keep count of the animals, but believes he had hundreds at one point. These are the kinds of predicaments Professor Kingsford is concerned about. "If you get it wrong, you can do a lot of damage … It needs to be properly regulated as wildlife licensing should be." The longevity of these projects is another welfare concern. And troubles at a NSW sanctuary for the threatened parma wallaby is a stark demonstration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, businessman Peter Piggott, who famously saved the small wallaby from extinction, and his family took to the media asking for help with the translocated parma wallaby population that had been living at a reserve in Mount Wilson for half a century. According to his daughter, Heidi Piggott-Irwin, the animals had bred up to 300 individuals and the fence keeping them safe from predators had fallen into disrepair. "Dad's 88, so, it is just too much for him now," Mrs Piggott-Irwin says. Luckily the family has received help from WIRES and NSW National Parks, which are relocating some of the animals into official state government safe havens. "The breeding would not stop … It's best they go to sanctuaries that are managed by national parks," Mrs Piggott-Irwin says. Professor Kingsford says longevity is a major issue for private sanctuaries. "If you have a private sanctuary and things go pear-shaped for the animals or even personally and you can't afford to do it anymore, what happens?" 'Dragging the chain' Ash (not his real name), another rogue rewilder, says the Victorian government doesn't care about wildlife. "They're dragging the chain. "It's a department [Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action] made up of bureaucrats. That's all they are. They have no actual moral investment in what they're doing." Ash created his sanctuary in 2016 and like Mr Pails used his pet licence to obtain endangered Australian animals, releasing them inside a feral-proof fence encircling 56 hectares. Richard Kingsford says longevity is a major issue for private sanctuaries. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) It can be difficult to keep count of animal numbers in private sanctuaries. ( ABC: Che Chorley ) Ash has evaded the state environment department because the department does not conduct routine in-person checks on every licence holder. He is advocating for an entirely new licence that allows private individuals to rewild. "We can't just have cowboys doing stuff everywhere." Ash doesn't see himself or Mr Pails as one of those cowboys. "If Roy's story was taken to a public vote, everybody knows what the answer would be." Do you know more about this story? You can securely contact angelaheathcote@ Good intentions, bad consequences Mr Pails's advanced wildlife licence has been cancelled by the state environment department, placing him on a retention permit while it works out what to do about Sunset Sanctuary. "They're protecting them to extinction because you can't do nothing," he says. Roy Pails began building Sunset Sanctuary in 2018. ( ABC: Patrick Stone ) Chief conservation regulator Kate Gavens says the Victorian government did not approve Mr Pails's application due to significant concerns about animal welfare and the conservation value of the activities at the property. The regulator also says it has concerns about feeding regimes and the genetic health of the population, which makes them "unsuitable" for any breeding program. Richard Kingsford argues rewilding is a complex science that needs checks and balances. ( ABC: Bill Ormonde ) Professor Kingsford says he's got problems with any kind of rewilding project that is not scientifically rigorous. "My problem with some of this guerilla rewilding is it's just happening and people are throwing things in. No-one's actually looking at whether it was a success or failure." One of the many creatures released at the Wild Deserts sanctuary in north-west NSW. ( ABC: Bill Ormonde ) But he acknowledges the good intentions behind these acts. "It's probably a response by people wanting to do the right thing for the environment and not realising just how complicated it is. Professor Kingsford has concerns about private sanctuaries. ( ABC: Bill Ormonde ) "How do we actually get that right so that individuals can do the right thing, it doesn't cost them an arm and a leg, and they understand the long-term consequences?" Watch ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm AEST on Sunday or stream anytime on ABC iview. Credits
