We're releasing Ocelots in a wetland - here's why

We are releasing ocelots here in this vast wetland to try and bring back a sustainable population. This means finding captive or injured ocelots rescued by conservation organizations, building semi-wild enclosures in their natural habitat, and then retraining them in their wild killer instinct so that they can survive in the wild once more. And by releasing these small but deadly cats, we hope to unleash a trophic cascade of change that will trickle down the food web and restore the balance to this ecosystem. And what an ecosystem this is. Welcome to Iberá, the land of shimmering waters in the local Huarani language of the northeast of Argentina, and officially the second largest wetland in the world. It's simply huge and brimming with life. The first thing that hits you here is a wall of sound, the chorus of thousands of birds coming at you in a storm of wings and beats of all shapes and sizes. Whites, black and orange feathers, the southern squirrel, the wattled jacana, the white-faced whistling duck or the crested caracara. You lose count and trapped in this mess of life. There are these clouds of dragonflies glistening in the sunlight. You can see caimans patiently waiting for their next meal and howler monkeys high up in the trees observing all of this. And of course, hordes of capybaras and all their flatulent glory. Wildlife is simply everywhere. Right now I can see a marsh deer right there. I can see rias in the grassy areas. I see all sorts of waiting birds. The wildlife, it's out in the open. It's really easy to see the abundance, the biodiversity here in this place. But what this abundance of very relaxed and chill capybaras also tells us is that there's still something missing. Many animals have been hunted to extinction here, mostly for their beautiful fur. There used to be giant otters playing in the various lakes. There were collared peccaries roaming the forest clearings. Giant anteaters searching for their next meal among the tall grass. And of course, there used to be jaguars and ocelots stalking their prey hidden stealthily in the dense vegetation. All these animals have simply been gone from this place, leaving a series of gaping holes in the food web and in the balance of the ecosystem. But this is where our incredible partners at Rewilding Argentina come in. All these animals that I've just shown you are part of their various rewilding programs. They've been doing this work for decades at a most of us can only dream of, and all on the back of a really solid foundation laid down by Doug and Chris Tompkins, and later taken on by a dedicated team that formed around this project. And the additional protection provided by their work has already had a massive impact, with wildlife populations soaring. Nowadays I am tripping over capybaras, but at some point they were a rare sight and so were the marsh deer. But still, protection can only go so far, and that is why certain animals need to be reintroduced. And one of the missing pieces is the ocelot. And that is where we come in. We are providing Rewilding Argentina with $120,000 to help kickstart their reintroduction program, to bring back this amazing cat. And I think this is a great chance for us to help fund a brilliantly impactful team embarking on a new and important project. And in the process, I hope we can learn something first hand from these masters of reintroduction. Now, beyond just bringing them back outright, there are other good reasons to reintroduce ocelots. So, before we get to the releases, I would like to dig a bit deeper into one specific benefit we hope to see, which is all about their place as regulators in the trophic structure of this ecosystem. So, the ecological role of the ocelot is, first of all, to be a predator. It predates other species like several species of birds, some small mammals or even medium-sized mammals like juvenile capybaras or even brocket deer. So, one of the things that the ocelot does is regulates the population, maybe the numbers, but also the behavior of some of the prey. But also, it competes and even can prey over other mesopredators like gray foxes or crab-eating foxes and control the numbers of these other predators. And by doing so, it benefits the prey of these foxes. What we have here is the classic case of an ecosystem falling out of balance. If we look at a simplified version of the ideal Ibera food web, at the top we find the undisputed predator, the jaguar, followed closely by other predators that it might enter into conflict with, but not necessarily hunt, such as the ocelot, specializing on the forest edge, or the main wolf, specializing on the open grasslands. Below them we have this series of mesopredators, such as foxes and caimans, that are predated by the top predators, but also prey on animals further down, such as grassland birds, wetland birds, deer, small mammals, and of course the capybaras. Now, in such a system, when you lose the top predators, you get an imbalance. Certain prey might boom and overgraze areas, such as the capybaras that multiplied in large numbers after they were protected and without too many predators around. Or we get this strange effect through the mesopredators, such as the foxes, which might increase in number and lead to additional predation of animals further down, such as these beautiful grassland birds, who have their nests raided a lot more frequently and over time this can lead to big losses in their populations. So, oddly enough, by bringing back a cat that directly hunts these birds, we are actually helping them out. But how do we get started? Well, the first step is of course to find some ocelots. Most of the founders for this program come from Brazil, often animals from zoos or that got run over by a car or hurt in some other way. After resting, recovering, and getting their paperwork sorted, they can be carefully moved to Argentina by a team that, by now, is very experienced and capable at their job. So, the second stage in the reintroduction process is a quarantine and Rehabilitating Argentina, because they're doing so many different reintroductions, have had to build their own quarantine facility, which is full of different animals that are going through this process. Animals come here to be thoroughly tested and also to wait long enough so that it is clear that they're not bringing any diseases into Iberá, which is crucial for the biosecurity of this work. Quarantines often vary in time, because they depend a lot on the sanitary part. But a quarantine goes from 35 days to 50 days, a long quarantine. We always want the quarantine to be as fast as possible, but without stopping to be aware of the objective of the sanitary part. And despite not having a ton of space for biosecurity purposes, this did feel like a lively animal hotel. I personally really enjoyed seeing all these animals up close, especially knowing that they're traveling through here to fulfill their destiny in a much more spacious and natural environment in Iberá, either as fully released animals or as breeders for the program. Here I got to see giant otters lazing around, tortoises shuffling about. I got a nice close-up sniff from a giant anteater, saw a beautiful jaguar at eye level and also playing with a pumpkin, just like any silly cat would. And then, finally, I saw this beauty, Lila. This overdose of cuteness was born wild, but unfortunately she was run over by a car, which meant that she required care. But once recovered, she was the ideal candidate for this program and was transferred from Brazil to this facility. And after she completes her checkup and quarantine time, she will travel to the next stage of this release program, which are the custom-built ocelot pens. Now, this place is on another level. These pens are, quite literally, a bit of their wild habitat with a fence around it. Each cat has a lot of area and many places to hide and this way they live directly in the environment they will be released into, with all the same sights, scents and sounds that they might encounter later, which really helps them adapt successfully. And because these cats are small enough, it was safe for us to get a closer look, so we went in there with Augusto, who knows each cat well, but it was still really tough to find them, let alone film them. Nevertheless, after a fair bit of searching, we finally came close. So yeah, my first experience with an ocelot was this, a growling tuft of grass. We were mere meters away, but still had no chance to see her, which I think really sums up this stealthy cat and shows how well she can blend into the landscape. So, leaving this grumpy ocelot behind, we tried to look in some of the other pens and we found Pelusa, hiding in a tree. She is the daughter of two other ocelots that were brought here, Tommy and Luna, so she grew up in these quasi-wild conditions raised by a dedicated mom that was already wild enough to be released herself, making her one of the best candidates to successfully adapt to life in the wild. In these pens, the ocelots are fed meat at these boxes that they learn to use and later, when they are released, these same boxes will be put out there with some supplementary feeding to help them ease into life in the wild, but to keep their senses sharp, they still have to hunt. While in here, some small prey will come to them, which is a major advantage of building these pens in their natural habitat. There are small mammals, such as mice or rats, that they can stalk amongst the grass and the trees and which they hunt really successfully, sometimes even making their next-door neighbor jealous. While they do this, some of them look like they are playing with their food, but this is not always the case. This behavior might look cruel, but it is part of a carefully honed immobilization skill that allows them to control their target at a distance before going in for the final bite and thus reducing the risk of injury to themselves. This is particularly relevant when hunting potentially venomous animals, such as snakes. They also catch the occasional frog or toad and even try to hunt some of the animals that fly through the fence, such as small birds or, in this case, a bat. But to really hone these important skills, they also have to hunt live prey that cannot get through the fence. These animals have to be caught in traps, right next to the pens, and I like to think that if the ocelots were free, they would probably be dead anyway, but somehow it feels different to watch, simply because we know that we are the ones dooming these animals by locking them in with a predator. However, it is a necessary evil in order to fix bigger wrongs done in the past. And because of all this, they successfully learn to hunt bigger animals and, crucially, also foxes, which bodes really well for this effect that we expect them to have. So here, as you just saw in this bush behind me, we have Balam and he's the main protagonist for today's story, because tomorrow is his big day. He's going to be released back into the wilds of Iberá, and right now he's napping, catching up on some energy that he's really going to need tomorrow. Now, before releasing Balam, I just wanted to also see some of these special grassland birds that we hope to help with all of this work, and I was not disappointed. I mean, look at this fantastic bird! It is the aptly named strange-tailed tyrant, which is vulnerable to extinction and could really benefit from having fewer foxes around. And if somehow the ocelots themselves were not enough of a reason to show the importance of this project, well, there you have another one. And if you want to support this kind of work, you can do so by becoming a member at mossy.earth. Our mission is to restore wild ecosystems in all their wonderful diversity. We are able to do so because of people like you, watching this video, that decide to contribute a small amount every month to our projects. And together, thousands of us, we can do really big things. In some places, we've built our own rewilding teams, and in others, we support amazing partners like Rewilding Argentina. So if that sounds like something for you, then please consider joining us at mossy.earth. The link is in the description and in a pinned comment, or you can also pause and scan this QR code here. Every bit Okay, so we've been waiting for three days for Balam to get an appetite, but finally he jumped into the trap. He's in the back there. So it's time that he transitions to his life in the wild. And yeah, this is a really exciting moment for this reintroduction program. I mean, what a moment. That was really special to witness. When he walked out, he sort of paused for a moment and looked back at us, looked back at the team. And I thought that was really cool. And what a milestone this is for the team here, and of course, also for Balam that begins his life in the wild. And we're going to be following it closely. And of course, we're going to be rooting for him to succeed in this new adventure. In our next video on this project, we will go and track Balam to see how well he managed in the first few days in the wild. And then we'll follow up on everything that has happened in the year and a half since. So be sure to be subscribed here on YouTube to get the notification when it comes out. And remember, to support this kind of rewilding work, you can become a member at mossy.earth. Until next time. Cheers!