The Dirección General de Recursos Naturales del Ministerio de la Producción, La Pampa, is carrying out the recovery of these animals. In this context, the general director, Carlos Bonnemezón, told the APN that all the procedures for the release of these species “require intense prior work, both in the administrative and operational part.” He added that “the attention, care and conditioning of the animals is carried out by the technicians of this Dirección who are trained and have ongoing training to do the best job possible.” He also said that it is important to highlight the awareness tasks regarding the pet issue “a topic that is worked on in schools and advertising campaigns and is of great relevance, in addition to work such as the one recently carried out, helps to strengthen the line of work that we have been carrying out in terms of the fact that wild fauna is not a pet.”
In the province of La Pampa, there are several species that are in danger of extinction for different reasons, either due to the modification of their habitat, the extension of the agricultural frontier or their commercialization as pets, a practice that is prohibited by Law 1194 on the Conservation of Wildlife. Among the affected species we can mention the land tortoise, the yellow cardinal, the Pampas deer, the Pampas loica and the crowned eagle.
Discouraging pet keeping #
“In the case of turtles, the figure of Voluntary Delivery was implemented, while with the yellow cardinals it is by confiscation,” said Marcelo Dolsan, a technician from the Dirección. He reiterated that “it is necessary to return these animals to nature, but their reintroduction is not an easy task, after spending in some cases, many years in captivity.” He also clarified that “they must be in good condition for this, which means that there is complex work on the part of the Recursos Naturales professionals before the release. As for the turtles, after their time in captivity we must work on regaining their weight, teaching them to eat what they will find when they are free, which will surely not be the same as what they ate when they were locked up.” And in the case of the yellow cardinal “sometimes the specimens are very underweight, they have lost muscle mass and flight capacity, so we have to work hard on their recovery.”
Meanwhile, Diego La Porta, a veterinarian at the Dirección explained that “after recovery, a prior quarantine is carried out, which includes a coproparasitological study, sex identification, diet adjustment, and we look for the best place for natural release. As for the environment, we make sure that they have water, grass and shade nearby as much as possible, and this is an ideal area because it has these parameters, and we also saw this species in that place.”
In the Puelén department, on this occasion, pairs of land tortoises were released, “that is, male and female, we sexed and ringed them with a ring that has the acronym DGRN -Dirección General de Recursos Naturales- and a number, which will help us to do subsequent monitoring.” The same is done with the yellow cardinals.
La Porta stated “we must discourage pet keeping, that is, not having wild animals in captivity, for that, we must start by not buying the animals or not removing them from their habitat. Regarding the yellow cardinals, in general anonymous complaints are made when they are found in private homes, and a legal and administrative process is initiated to recover the birds in a joint effort with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Police.”