A puma (Puma concolor) was captured by cameras in an environmental reserve in the municipality of Maricá, in the metropolitan region of Rio of January. The feline was considered extinct in the region for more than a century, according to information from the municipal government.
The records were made in the last quarter of 2021, with camera traps installed at the Serras de Maricá Municipal Wildlife Refuge (Revimar), one of the municipality’s environmental protection areas.
The puma, also known as the cougar, is the second largest feline in the Americas, second only to the jaguar (Panthera onca). Your habitat extends from Patagonia in the south to Canada in the north, including all Brazilian regions and biomes.
onca2, by Disclosure/Marica City Hall
According to the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the species in Brazil is considered vulnerable, the third most serious level on the scale of extinction risk for animals that still exist in nature (behind critically endangered and threatened situations). .
Before the puma, Revimar’s camera traps had already caught another feline, the margay (Leopardus wiedii), in February 2021.
