Conservation Success Story: Jaguars Born in the Wild!

Some seven decades after going extinct in Argentina, jaguars were finally born in the wetland, a testimony to the country’s successful rewilding program that was launched 10 years ago.

“I am overjoyed with the news that one of the two original jaguar cubs born at the Ibera breeding project has brand new cubs of her own,” exclaims Kristine Tompkins, president of Tompkins Conservation and United Nation Patron of Protected Areas. “With jaguars now successfully breeding in the wild, the species is well on its way to recovering.”

Identified as “near-threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the jaguar has been reintroduced in Argentina as part of a program launched in 2012. So far, a total of eight specimens have been released in the 1.8-million-acre Ibera Park. Jaguars are the largest feline species in the Americas and play a crucial role in the development of a healthy, functioning ecosystem.