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On the 25th of June, Globo.com reported that in the evening of the 24th, a pair of jaguars had attacked and killed a 22-year-old fisherman in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso state, near the town of Cáceres. The young man had camped near the Paraguai River with his father, who had left the camp to look for bait, while his son was sleeping. When he came back, he saw two jaguars that had ripped open the tent and were dragging out his son by his head. Unarmed, he was unable to interfere. Only when other fishermen arrived, were they able to drive the animals away, but by then, the young man was already dead. |
Investigation of the body showed that he suffered cranio-encephalic trauma; the animals consumed parts of his face and neck. In an interview published on the website of TV Centro America, the biologist Rogério Cunha de Paula, coordinator of the National Program of Conflict Control between Predators and Human Population of the National Predator Center (CENAP) states that the riverine communities and the intensive tourism could have brought the animals closer to humans. According to de Paula, the animals are losing their fear of human beings, and he affirms that now a strategic plan has to be developed to avoid new attacks. |
