03x03 - Episode 3

[bunniefuu]

(gentle music)

- Argentina is probably best

known

for its incredible vistas,

range riding gauchos,

and status as a global

destination for dove hunting.

But there's so much

more to the story here.

Home to both native and

non-native species

that both require ongoing

management

and monitoring for effective

conservation in the landscape.

Hunting has become a

controversial

practice in modern times.

My name is Dan Cabela

and I'm traveling the globe

to explore the true impact

that hunting is having on our

remaining wild landscapes.

This practice goes as far back

as human history can remember,

but does it have a place

in modern conservation?

(gentle music)

Argentina is home to a wide

variety of flora and fauna

and has a rich history

of hunting deeply embedded in

the culture.

Many hunters visit the country

each year

in pursuit of the abundant

dove and duck populations.

A few hours south of Buenos

Aires City in Argentina,

hunting outfitter, Dr. Patricio

Geijo,

is spearheading

a landscape

scale survey

of bird populations

workingalongside

universities.

This year he is joined by

ecologist, Dr. Clara Trofina.

- So we are here now in

order to make this survey

and to get exact numbers

of birds in this area.

And the main goal would be, be

sure that the extraction rate

that we are doing is exactly

what we need

to keep everything in ecological

balance.

- At the university, I am

researching grassland birds

and their interactions between

predators,

and breeding success of them,

and different management

in their breeding sites.

I'm not used to count

them if they are so many.

So fortunately we had the help

of hunters.

(gentle music)

- [Dan] Commercial farming has

created an abundance of food

for birds like doves

and ducks in Argentina.

That and the lack of natural

predators,

has led to large increases

in some populations,

which can be very destructive

for agricultural crops,

such as rice and wheat in the

region.

(gentle music)

- It's really a good

morning for bird watching.

- [Dan] Clara is using a

specialized app on her phone

to log and record all the data,

so it can be added to a national

database.

This information will be used by

hunters

and the authorities to better

inform

regional population management.

- I think we are done here.

- Okay, let's go.

- What was the total here?

- A lot (Patricio laughs).

- [Clara] 150 ducks.

- [Patricio] 100?

- 150, over 100 ducks.

- Yeah, for the size of

this pond is more than okay.

- [Dan] Historically, booms

in duck and dove populations

in Argentina impacted

agriculture to the extent

that farmers operated mass culls

across the country,

decimating the numbers.

- The old farmers, and I'm

talking about the late

seventies,

the beginning of the eighties,

decided to poison all the rice

fields

during the same moment.

It caused the life of millions,

literally millions of birds.

It is a good example about what

happens if you don't control

the birds in a very

wise and scientific way.

(upbeat music)

- [Dan] It's not just

ducks that are monitored

through this program.

Argentina's most iconic game

bird,

the perdiz is also surveyed,

but with a very different

method.

- Perdiz is a sort of quail,

bigger.

It's native from Argentina.

- [Dan] Unlike with duck

surveys,

perdiz monitoring uses pointing

dos

to locate and flush the birds.

By working the dogs

along specific transects

and varying habitat types,

the team is able to track

population trends over time.

The careful monitoring of the

population

allows hunting outfitters to

ensure

only harvestable surpluses

are taken during a season.

(whistle blows)

(upbeat music)

- [Patricio] Muy bien.

- Now we have 23 perdiz.

Oh!

- Well, yeah, that was an

exception.

You very rarely see them in

couples.

- [Clara] Nice.

(upbeat music)

- [Patricio] 39.

- [Dan] I believe when hunters

work

with science-based

individuals or organizations,

that much can be accomplished.

It is through these

partnerships,

that better understanding

of conservation challenges

can be achieved and it is the

science

that has the greatest impact

and helps us to better inform

conservation decisions.

(gentle music)

I joined Patricio

and head to Lamoda Estancia

to see how hunting is

providing both economic

and conservation benefits in the

area.

This area has a lot of

introduced non-native species,

such as red deer, black buck,

and buffalo.

Here they use hunting

to manage populations.

We've hardly come out of the

lodge

and we're already seeing game,

so things are looking good

and definitely looking forward

to it.

Happy to be in Argentina

and ready to get this thing

started.

Today we are hunting black buck,

which were brought to Argentina

from India in the 1920s.

With limited natural predators

and without proper management,

their population would

grow out of control.

Overpopulation impacts

not only agriculture

and native flora and fauna,

but also the health of the black

buck.

(gentle music)

Okay, yeah, so they think

this one might be pretty good,

so we're gonna try to

get a better look at him

and you know, we'll see what

happens once we get up here.

(gentle music)

(g*n fires)

- Congratulations for a very

good black buck, very nice.

- Thank you.

- You are helping us to

control them a little bit.

As I told you before,

we have too many, and they don't

have any natural predators.

They were imported from

India one century ago,

and they found the perfect

habitat here in Argentina.

So basically, they thrive in

each place

that they were introduced.

It's a pleasure to give you

a chance to experience this

because as you have seen,

it's very easy to find them,

but not that easy to get close

to them.

- No doubt there.

- You did a very good job.

(gentle music)

- [Dan] With every new location

I visit,

my understanding of how

we can better manage

our landscape deepens.

I'm forever eager to learn.

(gentle music)

(ducks quack)

I think this morning, we're

gonna head out

and look for water buffalo.

We've seen a couple since we've

been here.

Saw a pretty good one yesterday

evening.

Should be warming up here pretty

soon.

So we're ready to get this day

started,

and hopefully, we get on

some buffalo here shortly.

(gentle music)

Definitely not a shortage

of mosquitoes here

either, getting ..

(gentle music)

(g*n fires)

- Look at this, congratulations.

- [Dan] Thank you.

Wow.

This is probably the biggest

one of these I've seen.

I'm humbled by the sheer size

and beauty of the animal

that lies before me.

(gentle music)

Over the last couple

of days with Patricio,

I have come to appreciate

the intricate balance

between the management of

land for the environment,

the people, as well as the

wildlife.

And it feels good to play

a small role in this.

(gentle music)

(fire crackles)

Now, it's time to share our

harvest.

(glasses clink)

The meat is delicious

and excellently prepared.

I'm thankful to experience this

meal

with great Argentinian wine,

alongside my newfound friends.

There's one more thing

I wanna see before

leaving Argentina,

and that involves a

trip to Patagonia

to meet with

two biologists,

Dr. Werner Fluke

and Dr. Jo Anne

Smith

In 2022, they created a center

to research

and conserve the endangered

huemul deer,

which is native to Argentina and

Chile.

So far it's been a great

success,

and they're hoping to learn

enough about the species

to save it from extinction.

(gentle music)

- And I show you first this one

because this was an animal

that we actually captured

and had a radio collar on there.

This animal also is not very

old,

based on the fact that these

areas of different bones,

the joints fused in time,

and here they're still totally

unfused.

You can also still see that the

wear is not very progressed.

It's like not a very old

animal, plus the non-fusion.

And on this one too,

you can see on the side

very, very thin bones.

It coincides with that.

Most animals that we have

found here dead and alive,

have these type of problems.

- Right, and just recently

we got some lab results back,

showing that they're low

and deficient in vitamin D3.

And we know with humans, it's

a discovery that in nutrition,

that humans need D3

for bone development and

it works with vitamin K

and of course, calcium.

So if they're all deficient in

D3,

not only is their immune

system compromised,

but they're also going to

affect their bone development.

An animal that makes it to

adults

and breeding should be making

it at least to 12 and beyond.

Captivity can be 21 years

old with huemul deer,

but, and you're seeing it,

those 35 we found, we aged them.

The ones that we could age

and maximum was five years of

age.

That's pretty young.

- Yeah, it'd be interesting, you

know,

with these new fawns that

have been born in captivity,

you know, years from now.

- [Werner] Exactly.

- To just see with the, you

know,

with the supplemental feeding,

you know,

more of a controlled

environment,

easier on the animal.

It'd be interesting to see

if there is a difference

or if it's still the same.

- [Jo Anne] Or something else

going.

- Yeah, yeah.

Since the huemul are so elusive,

they are incredibly difficult to

study

and the exact cause of

the mineral deficiencies

is still being researched.

How many huemul do you estimate

there still are in the wild?

- No more than 2000.

More likely, probably 1500.

That's in both Chile

and Argentina combined.

- Werner and Jo Anne are

taking me to see the huemul.

All the adults have

tracking collars on them.

So Werner is using telemetry

to guide us to where they are.

The area has plenty of cover,

so they may be difficult to

spot,

even if we know where to look.

I'm really hoping that

we can find one of them.

(gentle music)

What herd size would you

guys be comfortable with here

to start releasing them back

out?

- Right now we have eight

animals

and the goal would eventually

be to have 30 minimum

and then we would start at that

point,

releasing some maybe three to

six animals,

male and female groups

into a different area.

So we are looking at

maybe four or five years

if the females are, you know,

all fertile and successful

in introducing animals.

And this would be, yes, the

very first in Argentina.

We're the first center in

Argentina

and we're also the first time

that they'll be doing a

reintroduction.

So it's pretty monumental.

- So all these years of hard

work.

Hopefully in the near future,

it's all gonna pay off.

- [Jo Anne] Yeah, that's our

wish.

That's our dream.

And we've been dreaming it a

long time.

and so we'll be stuck with it.

It better happen.

- [Dan] Yeah.

(gentle music)

- I think an important part

of having a center also

including research

where you begin to understand

more about,

we don't even know how many

days a gestation period is.

We're still guessing.

You know, faith in biology.

- Sure.

- We should understand this.

We need to understand it,

especially if we're gonna have

other centers opening in

Argentina, Chile, in the future.

And there are people now

interested in opening

their own centers, so

this could be a way that,

you know, we can give

them all this information.

- That's great.

Exciting times for sure.

That was, that was unbelievable.

- [Jo Anne] Yeah.

- I mean that just, it's been

a really awesome eveni..

- [Jo Anne] Yeah, I didn't know

we'd get that close to them.

I'm really happy that we-

- Can't thank you enough for.

- [Jo Anne] He didn't take off.

- Allowing me to see this.

This is amazing.

- [Jo Anne] All right,

I'm glad you could come,

really nice to have you here.

(gentle music)

- It is an incredible experience

to spend time observing the

rare and endangered huemul deer.

I consider myself quite

fortunate

to experience this in person,

considering there are estimated

to be less than 1,500

remaining in the wild.

Werner and Jo Anne have

one more surprise for me

before I have to fly back home.

They have located one

of the does with a fawn,

and I am thrilled to experience

something this special

and rare in person.

(gentle music)

You know, we've been watching

this doe

and Jo Anne said that it has a

fawn,

but we never saw the fawn,

but it was really cool

because as she was feeding away

from us,

we could hear the fawn calling,

calling her over maybe to feed

him.

I mean, not really sure.

We've kind of lost sight of him,

but pretty cool experience.

I mean, definitely a first, you

know?

- You guys got to see something

that is so rare to see and hear.

- Yeah, that was amazing.

- Yeah.

(gentle music)

- If I have learned

one thing from my trip,

it is that conservation

needs passionate people

with a true care for nature.

Only if we all come together

and share knowledge,

can we hope to safeguard our

landscapes

and wildlife for future

generations.

Argentina has strong historical

and cultural ties to

hunting and conservation.

This became apparent almost

everywhere

we traveled across the country.

Because there are so many

non-native species in Argentina,

proper management is

needed to control numbers.

Hunting is an essential tool

that not only helps to

manage these species,

but also provides an economic

incentive for landowners

to hold onto large tracks of

land

and look after the habitat.

(gentle music)