The year 2020 will be remembered not only as the year the Covid-19 epidemic began, but also as the year when many natural disasters took place. A study in Brazil produced a comprehensive report on one of the worst.
According to this research, it is calculated that the number of animals killed in the giant forest fire in the Pantanal Wetlands has reached 17 million.
Among the dead are reptiles, birds and primate monkeys.
Massive wildfires continued between January and November, destroying 30 percent of the world’s largest tropical wetland.
Calculations of the lost natural area were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Doctor Mariana Napolitano Ferreira from the Brazilian office of the Wildlife Conservation Foundation announced that they detected 22 thousand different fires.
Experts, who closely follow the fire ecology in the region, describe the 2020 fires as “apocalyptic”.
“These fires were unusual for their size and were clearly associated with the massive drought in the region,” said Doctor Alex Lees of Manchester Metropolitan University.
Lees predicts that if the Pantanal Wetlands continue to burn like this, it will be the end of biodiversity.
How was the number of 17 million reached?
The research is based on the principle of “corpse counting”.
The scientists reached the fires in the wetlands within 48 hours and followed an intermittent route through those areas, examining every dead animal they found.
The team managed to identify about 300 species of animals. By making an estimation of the area they roamed, they reached a conclusion about how many animals died in total.
Speaking to the BBC, Doctor Walfrido Moraes Tomas from the research team said that they were not surprised by the results obtained due to the size of the demolition area.
‘It will have a huge impact on the ecosystem’
But Tomas said what surprised him was that some species were particularly affected more than others.
“The incredible number of dead snakes has made us think about the folding factor,” said Tomas.
Tropical wetlands spanning Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia are the regions with the highest biodiversity in the world.
Thousands of different species of jaguars, anteaters and migratory birds live in an area of 140 to 160 thousand square kilometers.
Researchers consider increasingly frequent forest fires to be one of the most visible consequences of human-induced climate change.
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