An estimated 17 million animals, including reptiles, birds, and primates were killed by massive wildfires in the Pantanal wetlands in 2020, said scientists from Brazil.
Wildfires between January and November destroyed 30 percent of western Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, amidst a year of catastrophic drought across South America. The loss estimate was published in the Scientific Reports journal.
Around 22,000 separate fires were reported in 2020, according to Dr Mariana Napolitano Ferreira, the head of Brazil’s World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Despite the fact that the Pantanal burns naturally, another expert, Dr. Alex Lees, an ecologist from Manchester Metropolitan University who has researched extensively in Central Brazil, particularly in the Pantanal, called the 2020 wildfires “apocalyptic.” They were “quite different” from what the region is used to, as well as the traditional cycle of burning and recuperation, according to Lees. The scientists reached the areas of the wetland within 48 hours of a fire. The scientists was successful in identifying the species of the 300 animals they found. They then extrapolated from the region they surveyed to get the estimate of animals killed.
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