Floodwaters in the Rio Plata and Rio Parana carried a species of water lily and with it countless crawling, slithering creatures, south to beaches at the mouths of those rivers near Buenos Aires.
"We are raising awareness of the risk and danger present today. There are otters and species of snakes that are poisonous," said Matias Leyes, an official in the coastal town of Quilmes, south of the capital.
"The beaches of Quilmes have been closed as a precaution. We were cleaning up the coast during the week and while doing so we saw the snakes under the water lilies."
Siguen llegando #yararas en #camalotes a #Quilmes por las #inundaciones en el #Litoral pic.twitter.com/6o9RHwAroN
— 100% Dell'Isola (@marcedellisola) January 19, 2016
Inland river beaches were also closed over the weekend in the northern city of Rosario, Santa Fe province.
Locals there spotted displaced animals such as otters, a wild boar and a fox cub as well as snakes, scorpions and stinging insects.
Water covered the beaches and even the terraces of seaside bars in Rosario, as summer temperatures reached 40°C.
"It is dangerous because when there is not much beach there is more risk of coming into direct contact with rodents or snakes, whose dens are all flooded," said Gonzalo Ratner, a top civil defence official in Rosario.
Experts have blamed severe flooding in recent weeks in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on the El Nino extreme weather phenomenon.
#camalotes #serpientes #puertomadero @todonoticias pic.twitter.com/HNXcazAHQn
— Paula Lucia (@lucia_pau) January 19, 2016
Source: Agence France Presse
Argentina Scrambles to Fight Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 Years
By JONATHAN GILBERTJAN. 25, 2016
[...]
Small pockets of locusts, which first appeared last June, at the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, have spread across an area of northern Argentina about the size of Delaware. The mild and rainy winter here created comfortable breeding conditions for the locusts; their surge outpaced the ability of the authorities to control the spread of the insects.
[...]
Farmers last year reported locust clouds that were more than four miles long and nearly two miles high, ...
[...]
[Link]