The Wider Image: In Brazil, it's not just the Amazon that's burning. The world's largest wetland is on...
A fire has been burning since mid-July in the remote wetlands of west-central Brazil, leaving in its wake a vast charred desolation bigger than New York City. A team of veterinarians, biologists and local guides arrived in late August to prowl the bumpy dirt road known as the Trans-Pantanal Highway in pickup trucks, looking to save what injured animals they could. Jaguars were wandering the blackened wasteland, they said, starving or going thirsty, with paws burnt to the bone, lungs blackened by smoke. They saw bodies of alligator-like caiman, jaws frozen in silent screams, the last act of creatures desperate to cool off before being consumed by flames. This massive fire is one of thousands of blazes sweeping the Brazilian Pantanal - the world's largest wetland - this year in what climate scientists fear could become a new normal, echoing the rise in climate-driven fires from California to Australia. The Pantanal is smaller and less-known than its famous cousin, the Amazon jungle. But the region's normally abundant waters and strategic location - sandwiched between the rainforest, Brazil's vast grasslands and Paraguay's dry forests - make it a magnet for animals. The fires are now threatening one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, biologists say. The Pantanal is home to roughly 1,200 vertebrate animal species, including 36 that are threatened with extinction. Across this usually lush landscape of 150,000 square kilometers (57,915 square miles) in Brazil, rare birds flutter and the world's densest population of jaguars roam. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY SEARCH "PANTANAL PEROBELLI" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES Matching text: CLIMATE-CHANGE/BRAZIL-PANTANAL
