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It was a cold and rainy day in the Iberá Wetlands. The dim clouds blackened the sky and soaked the verdant thickets in a dark, deep green. We imagined the tears of an ecosystem deprived for many years of its fundamental extinct species.
We had planned to go on a six-hour horseback tracking of one of the precious eight free Jaguars that were just recently reintroduced in the area, after 70 years of being extinct in the spectacular province of Corrientes. Chances of sighting were low and complex, because even if we luckily ran into it, we would most probably not have a clear shot for our cameras.
Instead, due to conditions, we followed our intuition and joined the jaguar caretakes to feed Malú; a female jaguar that had just arrived at the captive breeding enclosure that Rewilding Foundation built on the island of San Alonso. Nothing prepared us for what happened next.
After a rough and muddy four-wheel drive, we got there and quietly walked into the jungly woods near the enclosures. We took a few silent steps and watched the dense, bosky entanglement surrounding us. After mindfully scanning for a few minutes, we saw it. We saw half of its body, its tail, and its back legs, moving away from us at a very close distance. Our hearts started pounding, and we got one of those adrenaline rushes that you simply cannot describe. Two seconds, and it was gone. Vanished into the shady foliage like a ghost. We stopped dead and raised our cameras, but it was too late.
A few overwhelming minutes went by, with no sign of it anywhere. We decided to move. Then suddenly, willingly, and serenely, it came back into our perplexed sight. 30 minutes or an eternity went by of diverse interactions with the most majestic phenomenon these eyes have ever seen.
Her name is KARAÍ, and she is a wild and free young jaguar. This is the Great Cat of America; once again in the land that embraced the unique opportunity to retrieve a stolen gem, in immortal Douglas Tompkins’ vision. Corrientes is Corrientes again.
