Respect other species - Giant Anteater Reintroduction

COLLETT TRUST FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES - Respect other species

GIANT ANTEATER REINTRODUCTION

The Giant anteater project was conceived by Conservation Land Trust (CLT), in conjunction with other NGOs in Argentina and Brazil. Its objectives were and are to re-introduce the Giant Anteater into the Esteros del Ibera where they once roamed up until the 1970s. Since then they have been hunted to extinction. These animals are sourced from private homes and zoos from other provinces in Argentina, where they often live in unsuitable conditions. The governments of these provinces have donated at least 20 anteaters to the project, 17 of which now roam the reserve of 'Rincon del Socorro' and some of which are in quarantine. We have now had at least 6 anteater births in the reserve to the delight of the team. Some of these anteaters wear radio collars so we can track them using VHF transmitters and receivers. We also use remote infra red cameras in areas where we place supplemental food for the anteaters and have had some success in photographing them in the wild. In fact we have seen 3 of the babies born in the reserve only on remote camera. The youngest one is with his mother, Tota, who wears a radio collar which means that we can regularly see this juvenile. In fact Karina Spoering, who works alongside Yamil, has taken some amazing footage of the mother and cub playing.

LATEST ON THE GIANT ANTEATER REINTRODUCTION PROJECT

Better news from the team in November. There have been 2 more births to anteaters in the project as well as two more reintroductions. This now makes a total of between 18 -20 specimens roaming the reserve of Rincon del Socorro.

Bomba, a female who has been in the reserve for about a year, was seen with a very young cub on her back in September. We are able to keep an eye on this development as Bomba wears a radio collar.

To our surprise, Tota has had another cub which makes 2 within a period of a year. Both the new cub and the previous one, which appears to be independent of its mother, appear to be in good health.

Finally, 2 male juveniles have been introduced to the reserve having spent some months in quaranteen. They are called Evaristo and Hoci.

Tota with her first cub born to project

We had sad news in August with the death of 2 of the juvenile anteaters and also one adult who came into the project with horrific injuries. Sadly, Tancu, Valentino and Scarface were found dead in a period of exceptionally cold weather for August. Scarface probably died as a result of bad health, which included convulsions and lack of balance. The known births of 6 cubs during the past 2 years however makes up in part for these tragedies.

Image of Ivoty Porá with her new cub (born in winter 2010). This cub is only a few days old in this shot.

Ivoty Porá with cub Tecove (her first cub) on camera trap

Ivoty Porá with cub Tecove on camera trap at feed station

Giant Anteater caught on camera trap at feed station (probably Preto)

There are now 18-20 of these beautiful animals roaming the 12000 hectare reserve of Rincon del Socorro. Biologist, Yamil di Blanco is in charge of the running of the project and probably knows more about the giant anteater than anyone else in the world. He is always looking for volunteers for the project, minimum of one month and preferably with some spanish (although Yamil speaks excellent english).

The first baby anteater to be born here in the project has not yet been seen but has been captured on infrared camera trap on many occasions. He/she has been named Tecobé and travelled on the back of his/her mother, Ivoty Porá for several months. Here is the link to a beautiful 15 sec video shot of Ivoty Porá with her offspring of a couple of months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJXxLq7yj3E

The Story of Arandu

Arandu is a male anteater who was donated to the project by the province of Juyuy. He came as young cub of 2 months, totally dependent on his mother who presumably had been killed, and was brought up by the vets until he was 6 months of age.

Arandu on mock mother anteater

Arandu was released into the reserve of Rincon de Socorro in August 2008 and almost immediately adapted well to his new life, gaining weight and staying healthy. Arandu has worn a radio collar since he was released and is probably the most tracked anteater.

Arandu was unique in that he chose to live in area of the reserve consisting of ‘Malezal’. This is an area of tall grass, up to 2m in height, which is very uneven and extremely difficult to walk on. When we were tracking the anteaters we frequently had to walk over this terrain and it was certainly a learning curve. Luckily one became more proficient with practice but falling was a regular occurrance. There is virtually no tree cover here although the grass provides some relief from the relentless sun, but the area is covered with termite and ant hills. Most of the other anteaters choose to live in more wooded areas.

In March of this year (2010) we lost his radio signals and spent a lot of time searching the vast area of the reserve. We even contemplated using dogs specially trained to hunt out anteaters although this would have caused him some stress.

Finally, during a flight over the Esteros encompassing a wide area, his discrete radio signal was picked up in July, some 45km to the Southwest of the release site. What was very fortuitous was that 2 vets who work for CLT were in this area at the time and were able to track and find Arandu. He was found within 400m of Ruta 40 which is the main road through the area and although it is a dirt road and not very busy, vehicles can drive quite fast along it. This could have presented danger to an anteater who are not renowned for moving fast.

He was darted and brought back to the reserve. The vets gave him a thorough check and he was found to be in perfect health and also had gained several kg in weight. He is now old enough to breed and we hope he may meet up with Mishky or Tota to increase the number of this species in Ibera.

Here is a map of the release and capture sites for Arandu:

Sadly, Arandu was found dead in November 2010. This is a sad blow to the project and he will be missed.

The Story of Tota

Tota is a female anteater who was donated to the project by the province of Salta in 2007. She was released into the reserve in August 2008 having spent several months in quarantine and some weeks in the acclimatisation corral. She was fitted with a radio collar and biologist Yamil tracked her successfully for 3 months until suddenly the signal disappeared. Many weeks were spent looking for her to no avail. The possibilities were that the transmitter on her collar had stopped functioning or that someone had captured her or that she had moved far away to a place where the signals could not be detected.

Flights in a light aircraft were undertaken in an effort to find Tota through the radio signals on her collar but this proved unsuccessful so eventually Tota was given up as lost.

In November of 2009 CLT received a call from some neighbours to say that they had been informed that a Giant Anteater had been seen in an area close to Ibera. Normally these reports are erroneous or the animal is in fact a Tamandua, a smaller type of anteater. In this case the animal was described in detail and the deciding argument was that they reported seeing a strange apparatus on its back. This surely must be Tota! The location was some 50km to the south of where she had originally been released.

To verify this, Yamil and Ricardo, the CLT pilot, flew over the location to search for a radio signal, just in case it was still transmitting. Indeed it was emitting a weak signal, discrete to the individual anteater, and as a result a rescue mission was launched.

After 2 weeks of heavy rain the conditions in the campo in which Tota was discovered were atrocious, but with the help of 2 vets, one biologist and several of the people who lived at the campo, Tota was located, tranquillised and was given a health check. To the surprise of everyone she weighed 44kg which is about as heavy as an anteater can get. She evidently had put on a lot of weight since her disappearance. Her radio collar was hanging off and the transmitter signal was so weak that it probably would not have lasted much longer. Furthermore, she was found within 500m of a pack of 10 dogs which is a dangerous place to be for an anteater. Dogs and their owners cause the death of many anteaters, in fact this is their greatest threat.

Tota was transported out of the campo on a horse and cart which was the only viable means of transport in the quagmire.

She was thus returned to the reserve of 'Rincon de socorro' after having been missing for more than one year. She was re-acclimatised for a few weeks in a holding corral and had a new collar fitted. Finally she was re-released in an area frequented by Preto and Arandú, 2 males in the project. Hopefully in the spring she may breed.

This has now been confirmed and Tota was seen carrying a cub of a few days old in May. This is excellent news for the project. See link below for short video of mother and baby. You may need to click on another link when the webpage appears.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNKechlWkF0

November 2011 -Tota has been seen with a new cub on her back which means that she has bred twice in a year - this is quite unusual but great news for the project!

TOTA WITH VET GUSTAVO IN HORSE & CART

This is the kit we use to track the anteaters. A fairly basic VHF receiver with antenna attached. It is however very efficient, allowing one to approach the anteater to within 5m. That, of course, is providing the radio collar is still attached to the animal and that the transmitter is still functioning.

We have also launched a giant Anteater adoption scheme. Five more have recently been released to the community at Rincon del Areco making a total of 17 Giant anteaters.

This is a truly unique project - the first time that Giant Anteaters have been re-introduced anywhere on the planet. As with all of these projects, it involves a lot of personnel - biologists, vets, field assistants and it all costs a lot of money.

Our trust has already donated Reconyx infra-red surveillance cameras and the cost of a field assistant for a year. We will shortly be adding photos of all the individual anteaters to the website with descriptions of their preferences and histories. Maybe someone out there will want to adopt one of these pioneering creatures or give us some advice as to how to go about it.

Here are some random photos of the anteaters: