Mymba Kuera: The race to save wildlife at the Itaipu dam

In October 1982, Paraguay and Brazil closed the gates of the Itaipu River, beginning to fill the reservoir of what would soon be the world's largest dam. Located in a rainforest on the border between the two countries, the Itaipu dam would go on to supply vast amounts of energy for decades. But the rising waters also put thousands of animals at risk, as their habitat was flooded. To mitigate this, the company launched one of the largest wildlife rescue operations in South America. It was called Mymba Kuera - 'the animals' in Guarani, the local language. Dario Perez Chena led the operation on the Paraguayan side. He speaks to Stefania Gozzer about the challenges his team faced in saving nearly 30,000 animals. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines' life and Omar Sharif's legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives' ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space. (Photo: A rescue team trying to grab a monkey. Credit: Itaipu Binacional)

You can listen to Mymba Kuera: The race to save wildlife at the Itaipu dam online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Mymba Kuera: The race to save wildlife at the Itaipu dam is an episode from Witness by BBC.

This episode is 10:51 long.

This episode was published on Apr 20, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Witness when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.