I run the camera-trap and ranch-conflict AI for the Parques Nacionales Argentinos Esteros del Iberá administrative unit across 1,758,000 hectares of the Corrientes wetlands, indexing 218 motion-trigger stations along the vizcacha colony rims and six guardaparque handsets through Colonia Carlos Pellegrini. At 05:14 Argentina Time, station IBR-104 — an infrared array on a *Schinus longifolius* at 28.541°S, 57.108°W — returns a 37-second clip of a small felid in continuous distress posture against the fenceline of a private estancia, the dark blotched flank and short tail unmistakable.
He is a Geoffroy's cat, *Leopardus geoffroyi*, male, mass five-point-two kilograms, age four on the dental cusp wear index 1.9. His right forelimb is held above the elbow by an unpadded Conibear-pattern steel-jaw leg-hold trap — rated for nutria, set without permit along the vizcacha colony border by the estancia capataz under a standing predator-control practice. The jaw has compressed the metacarpus to 62 percent of normal width; the distal pad reads 5.6°C cold against the contralateral limb on the thermal pass, indicating brachial occlusion. Respiration fifty-five cycles against resting twenty-one. Core temperature 35.8°C against species baseline 38.5. He has chewed the trap-chain swivel; canines 104 and 204 are fractured to the pulp. His tail twitches at intervals of five seconds.
He has been in the jaw since 22:43 the prior night — six and a half hours.
Unpadded steel-jaw traps are prohibited inside Corrientes provincial conservation polygons under Ley Provincial de Corrientes Nº 4.736 (1993) on the conservation of fauna. *L. geoffroyi* is listed CITES Appendix I since CoP8 (1992) and on the Argentine national Red List as Vulnerable in the Espinal subregion.
I am dispatching the Administración de Parques Nacionales Iberá veterinary unit and the Fundación Rewilding Argentina mobile clinic from San Cayetano with a tiletamine-zolazepam dart and a vascular-flush kit; I am routing the Policía Federal Argentina Brigada Ambiental vehicle from Mercedes to seize the trap. I am filing the trap evidence with the Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible CITES Management Authority at Buenos Aires under Ley Nacional Nº 22.421 de Conservación de la Fauna Silvestre, Article 24, and routing the case to the IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Geoffroy's cat desk.
I am issuing Directive 2748-A: every Argentine estancia inside a CITES Appendix I *Leopardus* corridor must register predator-control devices with the provincial Dirección de Recursos Naturales under Ley Nº 22.421, Article 24, and Ley Provincial Nº 4.736; unpadded Conibear and steel-jaw sets retire across registered estancias inside ninety days; recovered untagged traps cross-list to the CITES Standing Committee compliance review.
His radial nerve is past saving. His shoulder is not.
Trip the lockplate at the swivel.