Marsh Deer (endangered) male
Thanks for visiting
We are a small Trust that was formed in 2008 with the purpose of preserving habitat for wildlife. In April 2010 we purchased 1600 hectares of wetland in NE Argentina, in an area known for its biodiversity called the 'Esteros del Iberá'.
Since then we have worked hard to restore the land to its natural state in order to encourage the native flora and fauna to return. This has been accomplished by employing a ranger who regularly patrols the land looking for poachers, and by securing the fences around the south and east of the property to help prevent our neighbours cattle from invading us. This is ongoing work. We have planted some native trees, most recently Lapachos in July. When we bought the land we found about 300 head of cattle grazing on it which belonged to various neighbours. What a difference it has made since we returned these cattle as now the wild flowers have returned and the native trees are self seeding. We have also cut down invasive non-native conifers that self seeded from our neighbour's forestry plantation.
We have purchased a very old tractor at vast expense (just after the government banned imports of foreign tractors) and a new grass cutter which is being put to good use.
Good news! Rosita, our tame Marsh Deer has recently produced a fawn
which we are looking forward to seeing when we return to Reserva Don Luis at the end of May. The drought continues, unfortunately, with only about 90mm of rain recorded in almost 2 months. We are worried about the animals as by now the fish have mostly disappeared thus terminating the main food source at our reserve. Evaporation is however less as we are coming into winter in Argentina.
In late March we saw 2 Strange -tailed Tyrants in the long grass. Both had short tails and female markings so were most likely juveniles. We have pics of Otters and Grey Brocket Deer (male and female) on camera trap (see 'Slideshow' and 'Results from infra-red cameras') Other recent first sightings include the Yapu, Crested Doradito, Azure Gallinule,Pearly-vented Tody-Tyrant, Striped Owl and Ash-Throated Crake. We also saw and photographed a Broad-snouted Cayman in the south in late January which is the first time we have actually seen this species at Don Luis. See 'Reptiles of Ibera'
We spent 2 days at Iguazu Falls and have created a new page of the birds from there, some of which are distinctly different from the birds in our area even though we are only 380km apart - Fauna of Iguazu Falls We also had another session at the reserve 'Virocay' which has an amazing collection of birds including the Yapu, Streamer-tailed Tyrant and the Saffron-Cowled blackbird. I have posted some pictures at the end of the slide show and also to the bird page .
Juvenile Black Howler Monkey at Don Luis
Female Marsh Deer (VU IUCN Redlist)
Strange-tailed Tyrant, juv male (Yetepa de collar,macho juvenil) (VU IUCN redlist)
Strange-tailed Tyrant, female (Yetepa de collar, hembra) VU IUCN redlist
Resident Grey Fox
Our page on reptiles -Reptiles of Ibera -may be of interest to some of you. We hope to be adding more photos to this page in due course. We have had a lot of luck with reptiles which Gomez our ranger seems to regularly find. We have dozens of Caimans in the south (see left) - this one came into our garden when we had a drought, probably looking for water. Re snakes: so far we have seen and photographed a Parrot Snake, a Yellow Anaconda, a Leopard Keelback, a Keeled sepia snake, several Bothyrops alternatus (very venemous), a Coral Snake (venemous) and 2 False Water Cobras. See our webpage entitled Reptiles of Ibera for more information. 
The numbers of Marsh deer seem to vary according to the season and the availability of water. We regularly see them in the garden or in the nearby vicinity particularly when we have a drought. However, during the current severe drought we have not seen many probably due to the fact that the nearest water is about 1km away. Since August 2011 we have encountered a completely tame female who generally spends a lot of time in the garden and who is partia l to bread. Even she has been absent for most of March presumably due to lack of water.
The camera traps continue to record many different Marsh deer as well as Crab-eating racoons, Grey foxes, Capybras, Armadillos, Geoffroy's cat, Gray Brocket deer, Neotropic Otters and larger birds. We have temporarily removed them due to fire risk as our neighbours have been burning their fields - sometimes too close for comfort.
Marsh Deer (endangered)
During various rides around the south west and the north of the property we have seen Yellow Anacondas, 2 Jabirus building a nest in one of our small copses as well as Scarlet-headed Blackbirds, Black-Capped Donacobius and several Black-collared Hawks.
We commissioned an agrimensur in January 2011 to measure the boundaries we share with a forestry plot in the NE, and it was interesting to find that about 2 hectares of our neighbours trees were in our land. The wood from this plot has already been sold to an agent and thankfully he has started to clear out the conifers from our land so we can complete construction of the fence between the two properties. Nothing however gets done quickly in Corrientes, and it is not even noticeable that he has already spent 3 months removing trees.
In March 2011 we spent 3 weeks working at the reserve with some biologists from Durrell Trust. See our webpage entitled Field Trip to Don Luis - March. -
Marsh Seedeater (Sporophila Palustris) (EN IUCN redlist)
Other interesting pictures during our recent stays include Crested Doradito, several Marsh Deer, Saffron-Cowled Blackbirds, Streamer--Tailed Tyrants, Strange-tailed Tyrants, Howler monkeys, Geoffroy's cat, Crab-eating Racoon, Maguari Stork juvs, Marsh Seedeater,female Spectacled Tyrant, more Black-capped Donacobius, a Least Bittern, Azure Gallinule, a Purple Gallinule, Streaked Flycatcher, Long-tailed Reed Finch, Golden-crowned Warbler, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Variable Antshrike, Scissor-tailed Nightjar, Band-winged Nightjar, Nacunda Night Hawk, amongst others. We have less Snail Kites this year than last, but have masses of Black-crowned Night Herons - at least we did before the drought really took hold.
Black howler monkey (female)
Black-capped DonacobiusJabiru mycteria
We are again in a drought situation in spite of receiving 460mm during October, 250mm in November and about 55mm in December. The temperatures so far this year have been high (up to 37 degrees C) with very low humidity which very rapidly evaporates the water. This has led to a food shortage for the many predators that we have whose diets are based on fish. La Nina conditions are still evident and we look forward to more normal conditions or even an El Nino event. Nothing has changed at the end of March and things are getting serious. We had 40mm at the beginning of April which helped to extinguish a neighbour's fire which had got out of control - thankfully!
El Nino conditions at Reserva Don Luis (2010)
Reserva Don Luis
Check out our webpage on the land 'Reserva Don Luis' where we have photos of the flora and fauna. We have built a larger house for ourselves and visiting biologists/conservationists and other researchers, as well as a smaller house for the ranger. Both are now set up with solar pv that seems to function well. There is no supplied electricity in the area as very few people live in the Esteros. You can count our neighbours within a 10 km radius on 2 hands. Here is a picture of our home at Estancia Don Luis where we now have hot and cold running water. Research Centre at Reserva Don Luis
We spent a long time searching tracts of land for sale in the Esteros del Ibera and eventually found this beautiful place in the north which is protected by marsh and wetland to the west and by CLT land (Conservation Land Trust) to the east.
This land is about 40km to the south of the Paraguayan border and is sub-tropical grassland/wetland although I can personally vouch for the fact that it can occasionally get cold in the winter.
Marsh DeerThe Marsh deer is the largest of the south American deer and we have many on our reserve. We have also seen many different animals on our camera traps as well as seeing several in our garden or nearby. This animal is classed as vulnerable in the IUCN redlist. They appear not to be worried by humans and one can get quite close. We also have a tame female residing in our garden who has been with us since August.
Neotropical River Otter
We have now had confirmation of the presence of Neotropical otters which is not surprising as this type of aquatic environment and the low human density is well suited to them. Gomez, our ranger, saw one in the wet SW of our property in June 2011, and I personally saw one in the south in early July. This species is suspected of being threatened but is classed as 'Data deficient' in the IUCN redlist. It is also listed as endangered in Appendix 1 of CITES. We now have some pictures of this mammal on our camera traps - finally! See 'results from Infra-red cameras'.
Maned Wolf (NT IUCN redlist)
The nocturnal Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is also in this area but is rarely seen although it is occasionally heard. This beautiful mammal is the largest canid in Argentina and can reach 1m in height at the shoulder due to its long black legs. this species is classed as 'Near Threatened' in the IUCN redlist. It has a large range, is solitary and hence has a low density. This animal would be difficult to quantify but we can certainly keep an eye out for footprints and faeces and listen out for its distinctive bark. We now have confirmation that Maned wolves are in the area as our camera traps which are on loan to the Giant Anteater project have recorded several images of these creatures at an estancia called San Alonso which is about 40km to the SW of us. See our webpage on results from infra-red cameras.
Black Howler Monkey
We have many Black Howler monkeys, a family of which seem to reside in each of our small wooded areas. We have at least 10 of these copses and have found up to 8 Howler monkeys in each. Although not endangered, we are delighted to have so many of these creatures at Don Luis.
CapybaraThe ubiquitous Capybara is found in most areas of the Esteros, including ours. We have seen several of them so far as well as seeing images on our infrared cameras. Now that the cattle have been removed, the wildlife are re-appearing in force.
Pampas Deer (NT IUCN redlist)We would love to encourage the endangered Pampas deer but it is unlikely that it will cross the marshy esteros from its very small range in the dry land east of the esteros.
All pics were taken since Oct 08 in Esteros del Iberá (sorry, not the Maned wolf - I took this one at Durrell Wildlife Trust).
Giant Anteater ('Eri' - she is too tame to release into the wild so has been kept in a large enclosure and given supplemental food. I understand she is now in another private reserve in Tucoman being well looked after). These animals are classed as vulnerable in the IUCN redlist.
Strange Tailed Tyrant ( VU IUCN redlist)
We saw several dozen of these unusual looking endangered birds at our reserve during July 2011, which is presumably a result of allowing the grass to grow up to 2m in height which is what they require in order to breed. They were still evident in August/September although were less obvious. We saw 2 juveniles with short tails in March so perhaps breeding was successful at Don Luis. We are also hoping to find the 'Ochre-breasted pipit' which prefers shorter grass. We heard this pipit at a nearby reserve in November and continue to listen for its very distinctive call at Don Luis. Both of these birds are classed as 'vulnerable' in the IUCN redlist. We also saw Marsh Seedeaters in September for the first time at our reserve which is great news. In fact we have a lot of different Sporophila species at the reserve, including a morph.
If you wish to help the Giant Anteaters please check out our new page on 'Adopt a Giant Anteater'. There are now 18 of these iconic animals roaming the reserve of 'Rincon del Socorro'. This land adjoins some of the CLT (Conservation Land Trust) protected land and there are plans that a Jaguar re-introduction project, currently moving forward with local surveys and education programs, will take place in this area. Below is a photo that I took at the Summit zoo in Panama in 2008. This animal would be a lot happier free to roam in the Esteros del Ibera!
(NT IUCN redlist)
Look at the page dedicated to this project.
We have a new website domain name now which is less unwieldly than the old one:
If you have not already checked out the short video of the mother and baby Giant anteater click on the link below:
We hope you enjoy reading about our aims and ambitions for wildlife conservation. We are a small, recently formed trust with limited funds which we are using to buy cheap land in biodiverse areas. Fortunately many of the biodiverse areas of the world are relatively unproductive for agriculture, hence the low price but this is changing fast with human overpopulation, so the sooner we can purchase viable tracts of land the better. We are interested in land in Corrientes, northern Argentina where Conservation Land Trust (CLT) have already bought up hundreds of thousands of hectares. We are acting on a much smaller scale with the philosophy that every little bit counts. We are also interested in land in Panama, to the east of Panama City where some prime rain forest is still unspoilt.
We understand that not many people will have the either the desire or the opportunity to purchase land in other parts of the world, but we would still love to have your support. Maybe you could visit the Esteros del Ibera in Corrientes, NE Argentina? It is a paradise for photographers, as the majority of the fauna do not feel threatened by humans and one can approach quite closely. We are working hard to collect data and intend to do many more surveys of the fauna and flora in the future.
But if you are interested in buying land for conservation in Argentina then we have identified a plot of land adjoining ours which is for sale and we would like this to be bought by a conservationist. This plot is about 1400 hectares and consists of cattle ranch and partially harvested eucalypus plantations. It would need some restoration but this does not have to be done immediately.
Map of South America with the province of Corrientes, Argentina in blue just below centre of picture.
Panama is the narrow country joining Colombia at top left of picture.
Map of N Argentina, with Corrientes, in blue, seen surrounded to the north and east by Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay
The province of Corrientes with the River Parana clearly shown to north and west. The Esteros del Iberá is shown as a yellow tongue. The land we have bought is at the northern end of the Esteros quite close to a town called Ituzaingó.
The photos in the slide show (see link above) were all taken in Argentina, mostly in the Esteros del Iberá and all since November 2008.
We are looking for like -minded individuals who share the same passion for wildlife and are willing to buy land or help us preserve it . We are also hoping to tempt some of you to visit this biodiverse paradise (especially if you like photographing birds - it must be the easiest place in the world to do this other than the Galapagos and Antarctica).
We take tremendous pleasure from watching and photographing animals in their natural environment with only natural predators and as few humans around as possible. The Trust does not and will never permit hunting on our sites.
Some thank you's to our very generous donators who have contributed to the Infra red remote cameras, amongst other things.
We are very grateful to all of them.
The late Mrs Margaret Le Bailly - Jersey
Jane Thomas - Eastbourne
Mike & June Rosser - Jersey
BALPA - pilot's union - London
If you wish to make a donation it will be used to buy equipment for our projects such as more infra-red cameras, sound recording equipment, longer lenses for our camera, native trees, wildlife reference books, posts and fencing, old pick-up.
Sorry if you have had problems with Paypal in the past but all should be OK now.
You can make a donation here:
We hope to see you again! Check back later for new updates to our website. We will be returning to Argentina in late May and intend to spend 2 weeks at Reserva Don Luis: 1600 hectares (4000 acres) of esteros, banadas, tree copses plus some higher dry parts all teeming with wildlife. Next trip we will be looking for the Strange-tailed Tyrant and various Sporophila species. Hopefully we will also find some time to relax and enjoy this paradise!
Feel free to use any of my photos on this website but please acknowledge their origin www.collett-trust.org Thanks
