With the first strict phase of the quarantine due to the coronavirus, last year, social networks, digital news portals and photographic blogs of residents of the Greater Buenos Aires were filled with animals.
As everywhere in the world, the busiest cities and urban centers empty of vehicles and people began to receive unexpected visitors. The postcards left by those first months of the pandemic were exotic critters, monkeys, capybaras, weasels, snakes and even foxes in the streets of municipalities in the North, South and West of Greater Buenos Aires.
Now, although circulation returned to its normal rhythm several months ago, a video that began to circulate on Facebook generated a stir among Escobar residents.
A capybara of enormous proportions, comparable to those of a large breed dog or an adult pig, was filmed on public highway security cameras.
Capybaras are common on the banks of rivers such as the Paraná. Photo: Fernando de la Orden
The footage was captured on Machinist Savio, where the animal appears walking along a path slowly, at ease, enters the frame of the video surveillance camera, parses through tiles with parsimony and caution and stops a few seconds before disappearing from the video.
The images were shared and viralized on different social networks and reached neighborhood WhatsApp groups. So much so that the news portal All Pilar Escobar spread them and now wildlife and environmental experts are looking for data to find the animal, rescue it and return it to its natural habitat, probably the Paraná Delta.
The humor was not long in reaching the comments of neighbors and users of social networks. “He’s patrolling the neighborhood,” said Jonatan Maldonado. “They already ate it,” published León Santillán. And Gastón Navarro confirmed that there are rodents in the area that may have attracted the capybara: “If there are rats in the area, a capybara can quietly appear.”
In groups of residents of Savio, a neighborhood located in the municipality of the North suburban area, more users said they had seen the animal at night. And experts in wild fauna asked that they inform the provincial Environment area if someone came across the capybara again so they could return it to its habitat. The telephone number of the Fauna area of the Buenos Aires government is (0221) 429-5236 / 429-5206.
Other unusual quarantine appearances
Weasels in San Isidro
“San Isidro is one of the cities with the most weasels,” they say from the ecological reserve.
Marsupials known as “opossums” in other countries, called weasels in Argentina, multiplied on the streets of San Isidro in the first months of the quarantine.
The wild fauna is protected by ordinance in that district and the neighbors respect it to the letter.
“In general, in the North zone, wars are usually waged between residents because some take care of them and others want to kill them. But in San Isidro it doesn’t happen, everyone loves them and cares, ”he remarks. And he comments: “In the Parque Aguirre neighborhood, behind the CASI, people tell us that they sit down to have tea in the open air and they put a plate of food for their weasel to enjoy watching it eat. They are already their own and they worry if they don’t appear ”.
The head of the San Isidro Reserve describes: “They eat insects such as cockroaches, spiders and scorpions in quantity. They also feed on eggs from nests and steal honey, everything is good for them. They are very prolific: they live only two years but in that period they have many puppies ”.
Python snake in full tiger
Arrival. With its traditional yellow and white colors, the python arrives at its new home: the educational snake of the Tiger.
One of the episodes that surprised in 2020 had as its protagonist a fearsome Python 1.80 meters long. Yellow and white, the python was spotted by a group of neighbors near the corner of Victorica and Tacuarí avenues, in the heart of Tigre Centro.
Informed of the situation, agents of Civil defense from the Municipality of Tigre and Animal Protection approached the place, captured the snake and placed it in a kennel to transfer it to the Tigr Educational Serpentariume, which is at Pedro Guareschi 22, in the so-called “Docks del Puerto” area, in Puerto de Frutos.
River wolves near the Delta
Finding. One of the river wolves found in Escobar during his stay at the Rescue Center.
Another surprising situation that mixed daily life with wildlife occurred in Escobar. Were two river wolves which were sighted by neighbors. They are the largest members of the family of mustelids, mammals generally carnivores of terrestrial and aquatic order, like otters and ferrets.
Unlike the Tiger python, the two specimens found at Escobar had a delicate state of health. They are animals that are, in fact, in danger of extinction just like the deer of the swamps.
“We went to look for him because people could not carry him. The story is sad because he died in the therapy unit, during the first night. He had a disease that compromised his kidneys and lungs, the condition was irreversible. The losses hurt us because every battle we give is for life “, says Cristian Gillet, head of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation at the Temaikén Foundation.
Fortunately, the second specimen had better luck, since it could be rehabilitated. It was a river wolf cub that was estranged from its mother and social group during the first weeks of life.
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