Record-breaking fires consume Brazil’s Pantanal wetland

While aerial views of the wetland show smoke rising and the bright orange of burning fires, images of the burnt vegetation found charred skeletons of wildlife.

Brazil’s Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland on earth, is ablaze, with fires in June breaking historical records for that month. While aerial views of the wetland show smoke rising and the bright orange of burning fires, a closer look at burnt vegetation found charred skeletons of wildlife, including an alligator, monkey and snake, photos from Reuters showed earlier this week. Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has detected 733 fires in the Pantanal biome so far this month, with the previous record for fires in Pantanal for June being 435 registered in 2005. The state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which encompasses 60% of the Brazilian Pantanal, is under a “danger” warning for a heat wave expected to hit with temperatures 5ºC higher than average for the next three to five days, according to Brazil’s National Meteorological Institute (INMET). The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Brazil has warned that the entire year of 2024 could become the worst year on record for the Pantanal as the dry season is just beginning, and the number of fires this year already represents an increase of 898% compared to the same period in 2023, according to INPE’s data. “It is necessary to act quickly reinforcing [fire] brigades and counting with the support of the local communities to avoid a catastrophe”, said Cynthia Santos, conservation analyst for WWF Brazil, in a statement.