Moorish cats were returned to their mother in a forest area by firefighters in Santa Maria do Boiaçu, South of Roraima. Disclosure/Brigada Boiaçu Two Moorish cat puppies, a rare and endangered species, were rescued and returned to their mother in the Baixo Rio Branco region, in Caracaraí, in the south of Roraima. The rescue took place in a forested area close to the village of Santa Maria do Boiaçu and the Jauaperi River. ✅ Click here to follow the g1 RR channel on WhatsApp The rescue took place on Friday (5), and the return last Sunday (7). The story began when a resident found the puppies alone on the edge of a lake. He came to see the female, who ran away scared. The man thought it was a "very thin jaguar" (see explanation below). Not knowing what to do, the man took the puppies home and asked Brigadier Maciel Moraes, leader of the Boiaçu Brigade, which operates in the region, for help. The team advised that the animals be returned to the wild immediately. Before returning to the forest, the cubs were fed milk from a bottle. Return to mother The next day, the team walked with the resident to the exact location where the cats were found. In the forest, the brigade members set up a structure of branches and made a bed of leaves. The objective was to protect the cubs from possible attacks by other predators. Moraes and brigade members Elioenai Nascimento and Maria Marciele de Souza set up camp at a safe distance. The team kept vigil at the site throughout the day. "Around 9 or 10 pm, we heard soft footsteps on the wet floor. She made a noise [roar] and we were quiet. Soon after, we heard the animals, which were growling, stop, and everything fell silent", described Moraes. After silence in the forest, the professionals went to the leaf bed with flashlights and confirmed that the puppies were no longer there, a sign that the mother had recovered them. "I even got goosebumps, because a mission like this is very special. We train to take care of fauna and nature, but an unprecedented action like this brings an inexplicable feeling. Words are missing," said the team leader. "This was a trophy for us: taking two lives, returning them to the Amazon jungle, to their mother and to their habitat. It's a trophy that we will carry for the rest of our lives", he concluded. Moorish cat or jaguar? The resident's initial doubt, who mistook the cubs' mother for a jaguar, was clarified after image analysis by the biologist and researcher at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), Artur Alves. The specialist evaluated photos and videos of the rescue and confirmed that the animals are in fact Moorish cats. It identifies the physical characteristics that differentiate the offspring of the two species. "In the Moorish cat, the snout is smaller and more compact, with a slight projection, and the tail is more elongated and robust. The jaguar has a wider snout and a tail that is smaller in proportion to the body", explained the biologist. Alves added that the resident's report about the female also matches the Moorish cat, which in its adult stage has a physical size much smaller than that of a jaguar. Moorish cat cubs were mistaken for jaguars during rescue. Disclosure/Brigada Boiaçu See report on Moorish cats: Moorish cat: One of the smallest wild cats in the world is filmed in Goiás Read other state news on g1 Roraima.