The Environmental Military Police (PMA) recovered parts of the body of Jorge Avalo, a 60-year-old caretaker.
He was killed on April 21 during a jaguar attack in the Pantanal region of Mato Grosso do Sul, in an area known as Touro Morto, located in the municipality of Aquidauana.
During the recovery operation, a local riverine resident assisting the police was also attacked by the animal and sustained injuries to his hand.
The lower part of the body was found in a dense forest area about 300 meters from the fishing spot where the attack occurred.
The remains will be taken for forensic examination so that a DNA test can scientifically confirm the identity of the victim.
The caretaker’s disappearance was discovered by a tour guide who had gone to the farm to buy honey and noticed blood on a walkway. Jaguar tracks were also found at the scene.
One month before the attack, security cameras at the fishing site recorded one of these big cats roaming the area. It is not possible to say if it was the same animal that attacked the caretaker.
A week before the incident, Jorge Avalo appeared in a video recorded by his brother-in-law. In the video, the caretaker described a fight between two jaguars that had occurred the previous night in the yard of the property.
The PMA reported that it does not keep statistics on jaguar attacks on humans in Mato Grosso do Sul.
In March of last year, a 38-year-old rural worker was attacked by a jaguar in the Pantanal region of Corumbá. He claimed he only survived because his cellphone exploded during the confrontation, scaring the animal away.
Veterinarian Diego Viana, who studies human-jaguar coexistence in the Pantanal, said such attacks are rare and usually occur when safety protocols are not followed. He noted that the Touro Morto region had previously been the focus of awareness campaigns about the dangers of baiting animals.
This practice, which is prohibited by law, involves placing beef or chicken along riverbanks so that tourists can photograph and film jaguars.
Biologist Gustavo Figueiroa, from SOS Pantanal, expressed sorrow over the caretaker’s death and emphasized how rare jaguar attacks are. According to him, jaguars typically avoid humans. He said that he himself has encountered these animals during fieldwork and observed that they always flee.
However, he advised people to always maintain a safe distance from jaguars, as their behavior can change in specific situations, such as during mating season, when they have cubs, or when they are older and unable to hunt, which may force them to seek food near riverside homes.