(inspirational music)
(thunder rolls)
- [Sebastián] Iberá was a place
that was degraded by humans.
And it's a place that is
being recovered by humans.
It's an incredible example
of what we can achieve
if we have the decision
of restoring an ecosystem
on a large scale.
(hooves thundering)
(birds singing)
(crickets chirping)
(girth creaking)
(hand patting)
(grass rustling)
My job is related mostly
to bring back the species
that went extinct in these
different national parks
in which we are working.
(speaking in foreign language)
(gentle melancholy music)
The biggest project is
based here in Iberá...
A big project sometimes so complicated
that you cannot do it by yourself.
In Rewilding Argentina we developed a team
that is an incredible group of people.
They are passionate for their work.
(static buzzing)
The very first species that
we reintroduced here in Iberá
was the giant anteater.
Every animal that we
release has a transmitter.
That way we can follow the
animal after it's been released.
(transmitter buzzing)
(speaking in foreign language)
So the guys that monitor them
can look at them several times a week,
and see how they are adapting
to their new environment.
(transmitter beeping)
(branches cracking)
(speaking in foreign language)
(man whistles)
(speaking in foreign language)
(birds singing)
(speaking in foreign language)
(branches cracking)
They are doing incredibly
well by their own.
So the anteater is a
story of success, really.
(gentle guitar music)
We are in the northeastern
part of Argentina,
in a province called Corrientes,
in the Iberá National Park.
It's one of the biggest
wetlands of South America.
It's a very productive ecosystem.
It's full of mammals,
and birds, and reptiles,
and also a lot of
species that went extinct
in the last century.
There were a lot of
hunters inside the marsh.
They started to hunt
birds to get the feathers.
And they then turned to
other species like caimans,
capybaras, jaguars, to get their skins.
Our vision is to try to help reverse
the biodiversity extinction
crisis that we are facing.
(water splashing)
How we do that in Argentina
is by protecting what is left.
That's why we create big
national parks like Iberá.
And we restore the land
mostly by reintroducing
keystone species that went extinct
that are crucial for the
ecosystem functioning.
We are working in
different places in Iberá.
So far there are six different places
where we are reintroducing species.
And then we develop economic activity
for the local people,
so they can get benefits
from that park that is
going to be created,
and the wildlife that we
are starting to recover.
Some of the species that
now are very common,
those ones they could recover.
But others could never
recover by themselves.
(car engine rumbling)
For us to start the project
we have to bring animals from captivity.
So now we are heading to
one of the quarantines
that we have for the project.
In this quarantine we also have
a giant anteater rescue center.
Every year several animals
arrive to the center.
Most of them are orphans whose mother
have been killed by poachers.
All of the animals that
come from captivity
start their journey in the
project in the quarantine.
(hand brake creaks)
(door opens)
(door closes)
Ali.
(latch clicks)
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Sebastián As Voiceover] Ali
is an Argentinian biologist
and she is the one that takes
care of all these animals
until they are ready to go
to the field to be released.
Usually when the animals
arrive, they are very small.
They need to be fed with special milk...
several times a day.
(gentle music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(laughing)
(speaking in foreign language)
When they are big enough
to carry a harness with a transmitter...
we can release them in the wild.
(tongue slurping)
(sniffing)
The giant otter is another species
that went completely extinct in Argentina,
because of hunting, because
we destroyed their habitats
through logging.
(keys jingle)
(locks thudding)
(water splashing)
It's the first time that our
reintroduction project
is run for giant otters.
But the thing is that there are no otters
in captivity in Argentina.
(speaking in foreign language)
So Coco is the first male of the project.
(door scraping)
He's still in the quarantine.
He came from a zoo in Denmark.
And once he finishes the quarantine,
we will bring him to the Iberá
park to a pre-release pen...
where a female that also came from Europe
is waiting for him. That's Alondra.
Coco and Alondra, they
don't know each other.
So there's a long way for them to learn
how to raise the cubs.
And once they are ready, we will be able
to release them in the wild.
(pole scraping)
With the macaws we have the most hard work
for rehabilitating those animals.
Because most of the macaws
that we bring to the project,
they come from zoos or
wildlife rescue centers...
(whistle blows)
where they spend many years of their lives
in small cages without
the possibility of flying.
You not only have to change their diet,
but we also have to teach them how to fly.
(whistle blows)
(wings flapping)
(macaw chattering)
It can be up to one, two
years for each individual,
in which we train these animals
that come from captivity
to survive in the wild.
(macaw squawking)
(birds singing)
(chickens clucking)
All this park creation
process and rewilding process
cannot be done without the
support of the local communities.
(speaking in foreign language)
- [Sebastián As Voiceover]
Pellegrini is a small town
by the Iberá park that had
an economy that was based
mostly in forestry, cattle
ranching, and rice fields.
Now, since the creation
of the provincial reserve,
their main economic
activity is ecotourism.
(speaking in foreign language)
- People become proud of what they have,
and now young people choose
to stay in their hometown, and
they start to run ecotourism
businesses as local guides.
(uplifting music)
They use their knowledge
and they become very proud
that people come from
different parts of the world
to see what they know.
(speaking in foreign language)
(water splashing)
- 30 or 40 years ago, we had the idea
that the best thing that you
can do to preserve a species
is not touch anything.
(birds chirping)
Now we say that the best
thing that you can do,
and sometimes the only
thing that you can do,
is to be very active.
(speaking in foreign language)
So far we've been successful reintroducing
some of the species here,
like the giant anteater,
the pampas deer...But we are just starting
with the top predators, like the jaguar,
so there's a lot of work to do here.
(crickets chirping)
(speaking in foreign language)
(radio static buzzes)
(speaking in foreign language)
(radio static buzzes)
The jaguar reintroduction project
is the most complicated and
ambitious project that we have.
We built a very big reintroduction center
with very huge pens.
If you go there, it looks like
a Jurassic Park for jaguars.
So far, we already have five
animals at this reintroduction
center that we think are
ready to be released.
We hope that during this year,
we will have the first
jaguars living free in Iberá,
and that will be like the
coronation (laughs) of the
rewilding project, because it
has never been done before.
(gravel crunching)
We have to move one of the
female jaguars, Mariuá,
to the biggest enclosure of
the reintroduction center.
It's a very big step for the project
because it's almost
free of our management,
so it's like being already living free.
(speaking in foreign language)
(speaking in foreign language)
(gate rattling)
(uplifting music)
- Rewilding is not only
about bringing back
the keystone species that went extinct.
(people chatting)
(ramps thudding)
Rewilding is a proactive
conservation action
that brings joy to your soul. (laughs)
(gate clanking)
(paws thudding)
(speaking in foreign language)
(water splashing)
(otters squeaking)
When I see a group of macaws flying,
what you see is all
the effort that you put
so that these birds can make it.
(whistle blows)
(wings flapping)
(branch thudding)
(whistle blows)
It's many months of work
with any individual.
So it's not just two
macaws flying (chuckles),
but also a lot of history
behind those incredible colors.
(macaw squawking)
(wings flapping)
We don't live in cities.
(woman singing)
We live in the place where we are working.
We become neighbors of the local people.
They are the ones that
can tell you the stories
about the animals, about the places.
(birds chirping)
(speaking in foreign language)
As a team, we are really
proud that we are developing
a good example, that we
don't need to destroy nature
to have a better life quality.
(speaking in foreign language)
You just feel a great satisfaction
that we are fixing, as a
species, most of the bad
things that we did in the past.
(speaking in foreign language over radio)
(team applauding)
(inspirational music)
(speaking in foreign language)
What I always think is, if
we can reintroduce jaguars
in a place that they went extinct...
what else we can not do?
I think, (laughs) it's
like we can do everything.
(speaking in foreign language)
(laughing)
(melodic guitar music)
(singing in foreign language)
