Overview

• Environmental police pulled the exhausted cat from the Río Negro near Manaus on October 1 after residents alerted authorities to an animal struggling to stay afloat.
• Imaging and exams found more than 30 shotgun pellets, largely concentrated in the head, along with fractured teeth and other trauma.
• Veterinarians performed emergency treatment and transferred the animal to a specialized facility in Manaus, where doctors report a stable condition and no immediate risk of death.
• A widely shared rescue video shows officers from the Amazonas Military Police environmental battalion using an improvised device to keep the jaguar above water during the recovery.
• State environmental authorities have opened an investigation into the shooting, with officials suspecting illegal hunters, as experts link the case to rising human–wildlife conflict from habitat loss in the Amazon.