Araucaria expedition

Base camp and study area are located at high plains, natural grasslands intermingled with subtropical (temperate) forests. Our focal species are the vulnerable puma, the maned-wolf and the pampas deer.

The Araucaria Expedition is located in an area where predominates livestock farming and the plantations of exotic trees for the timber and pulp industry. Despite this, the return of species such as the puma and the maned wolf has been observed. While the latter is in the early stages of population recovery, the puma presence has been expanding for over three decades, generating conflicts with ranchers, and negative results for both, a conditions that our project aims to mitigate. Like the maned wolf, the jaguar has been appearing in southern Brazil in urban and suburban areas, but further north than the location of this particular expedition.

The wildlife target in our study, such as the puma (Puma concolor), the pampas deer (Ozotocerus bezoarticus) and the maned-wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) are vulnerable due to growing pressure from roads’ expansion, urban development and land partition. The puma has once disappeared from our study site, mostly as retaliation after livestock depredation, but has a history of thirty years of a come back, while the maned-wolf just recently began to be recorded, making a slow return. Both the pampas deer and the maned-wolf are naturally rare by being restricted only to grasslands, which are naturally patchy in our study area. Aggravating to the pampas deer is its diurnal habits that make it easy to spot by poachers, while the maned-wolf has been persecuted by attacking small-sized livestock.
The project is located in the high plains of south Brazil, where temperatures during winter may drop to zero or below.