The year 2020 was one of catastrophic forest fires: fires destroyed millions of hectares of land worldwide. Parts of the Pantanal in Brazil – actually the largest wetland on earth – were particularly hard hit. But a devastating drought and favorable political developments caused about one-fifth of the swampland to burn down. As a result, at least 17 million animals died, estimates a team led by Walfrido Tomas from the research institute Embrapa Pantanal in a study in the journal Scientific Reports. The Pantanal is considered a center of biodiversity and attracted numerous ecotourists in search of jaguars or hyacinth macaws before the corona crisis.
For their investigation, the working group counted all the dead animals they could find along various transects 48 hours after the fire had passed through. In total, they counted more than 300 carcasses, from which they then extrapolated the total number of dead animals in the entire area. Mainly smaller creatures such as small snakes, rodents and various birds were affected. The scientists also discovered dead monkeys, an anaconda and armadillos, but none of the typical large animal species such as jaguars, deer, tapirs, umbilical pigs or maned wolves.
However, this does not mean that these were not affected, Tomas and Co. Write in numerous reports, seriously injured or dying large animals were reported, found by volunteers or firefighters and brought to rescue stations. So these mobile animals were able to get to safety, partly injured before the fire, but then often succumbed to their burns afterwards.
The study therefore provides only a rough estimate of the losses. The authors also admit this: It is possible that many animals died in underground burrows or died later from their wounds, smoke inhalation or starvation because they could not find food. Then the number of victims would be significantly higher. Conversely, it probably did not burn as intensively in all regions as in the study area, which would reduce the death rate.
Fires are part of the natural part of the Pantanal ecosystem. However, they usually burn only on a small scale and not as extensive as in 2020, when almost 40,000 square kilometers were destroyed. In addition to the long-lasting drought in 2020, politics favored these fires: extensive livestock farming has dominated the region so far, but soybean farmers are increasingly entering the area. In order to clear land for cultivation as well as for new pastures, the farmers regularly use fires, which ultimately got completely out of control – even though a slash-and-burn ban had been issued. However, the Bolsonaro government had severely reduced the financial resources of fire brigades and environmental authorities, so that they could not take action against the arsonists.
