The puma returned to the city of Rio de Janeiro, where it was considered extinct and had been last seen in the 1930s, according to records made in different areas of the Atlantic Forest.
The return was recorded in June 2020 by a surveillance camera from Sítio Burle Marx, a National Historical and Artistic Heritage unit in Barra de Guaratiba, west of the state capital.
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Based on these images, a group of biologists from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) began to follow the feline’s trail, whose reappearance was the subject of a recent article in the scientific journal Check List.
With footprints, scratches on trees and other clues, biologists have proven the animal’s presence in other nearby parks.
It is about the “definitive reappearance of the species, not just an individual wandering around the region”, biologist Jorge Pontes, one of the authors of the work, told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
“We were able to prove that the puma is really in the city, they are not isolated occurrences”, assured Pontes.
Until now, the light-brown mammal had been officially declared extinct in the Municipal List of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna in Rio de Janeiro, scientists say in the article.
Although it is not considered a globally threatened species, it is a “vulnerable” species in Brazil and in the state of Rio de Janeiro, “mainly due to habitat loss and illegal hunting,” says the text in the Check List.
It is uncertain how many examples of the feline inhabit Rio, but its presence is registered both in the north and south of the continent.
The puma or puma can reach 2.30 meters in length and weigh 70 kg.
In addition to the Atlantic Forest, it occurs in different biomes of the Brazilian territory, such as the Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal.
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