Iberá National Park

Iberá National Park

The Iberá National Park is in the northeast of the province of Corrientes. The national park is adjacent to the 5530 km² Iberá Provincial Park to the southeast. Both the national park and the provincial park are part of the Iberá Provincial Nature Reserve, a 13 245 km² nature reserve established in 1982. The combined protected area is the largest in Argentina. The national park protects part of the Iberá wetland, one of the largest wetlands in the world. Together with the combined Iberá protected area, the national park is home to more than 4,000 species of plants and animals, including more than 360 species of birds. The park is a stronghold of the endangered Marsh Deer and Strange-Tailed Tyrant, and is home to large populations of capybaras, Yacare Caiman and Broad-Snouted Caiman. The park has been reintroduced to populations of Jaguar, Pampas Deer, Giant Anteater and Red-and-Green Macaw. In 2007, Tompkins Conservation and non-profit partners established a rewilding program to reintroduce many of the native animals that were extirpated from the area during the 20th century. This rewilding work is now being carried out by Rewilding Argentina, the offspring organization of Tompkins Conservation. Species reintroduced also include Collared Peccary, South American Tapir, Bare-Faced Curassow and Red-Legged Seriema. A program of captive breeding of jaguars has been set up, in a set of large enclosures where jaguar cubs can be trained to survive by hunting prey so they can someday survive on their own in the wild. In January 2022, the first male jaguar was released in the park, bringing the total number of introduced jaguars to eight.