JAGUARS OF BRAZIL'S PANTANAL 2015

JAGUARS OF BRAZIL’S PANTANAL

30 JULY – 9 AUGUST 2015 1 Wild Images Tour Report: Jaguars of Brazil’s Pantanal www.wildimages-phototours.com

Jaguar, Rio São Lourenço and next page: Giant Otter, two very special mammals of the Pantanal.

If we had to compile a list of top photography destinations, in terms of number of subjects and ease of shooting them, then Brazil’s Pantanal would be in the top five. The Pantanal also has a reputation of being South America’s best wildlife photography destination and it certainly lived up to this billing during our inaugural Wild Images visit to this amazing region. With a tour title including the word ‘Jaguars’ there was a high expectation of what is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of all the big cats and happily we were rewarded with 11 encounters over our five days on the Rio Cuiabá and its tributaries involving at least seven different cats, three of these being the same mating pair. Naturally some of these events were not ideally photogenic, being either partly obscured by vegetation or in harsh light but some of them were just right. Most were lounging around on the riverbank but we were also able to watch some hunting behavior, including swimming as well as mating and fighting too! We were all delighted with this outcome although by local standards this was still an average return owing to the high water levels in the Pantanal this year.

Mike Watson, August 2015

Whilst en route to Port Jofre or scouring the riverbanks from there we enjoyed a profusion of other fabulous creatures. Close behind Jaguars in popularity were the 5 (five!) Giant Anteaters we saw in the northern part of Pantanal. These prehistoric-looking creatures have very poor eyesight and encounters can sometimes be very close, as two of ours were, although it is worth reminding ourselves that these ostensibly peaceful animals have been known to kill people with their incredibly powerful bear-like claws. Other highlights as voted for by participants were the five encounters with family parties of Giant Otters, the ‘beauty of the shadows’ Agami Heron and the outrageous outsized parrot Hyacinth Macaw. The Pantanal is simply fantastic!

We saw a good variety of mammals, 22 species in total, although not all were within range of our DSLRs, including: Brazilian Porcupine; Capybara (the world’s largest rodent); Ocelot; Crab-eating Raccoon; Crab-eating Fox; Tayra; Neotropical River Otter; South American Coati; Black Howler Monkey and two Brazilian Tapirs. Birds were very visible and obvious and the more photographable included such impressive species as: Greater Rhea; Chestnut-bellied Guan; Blue-throated

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Incomparable! Giant Anteater at Pousada Piuval.

and Black-fronted Piping Guans; Bare-faced Curassow; Brazilian Teal; Maguari Stork; the mighty Jabiru; Boat-billed (18!) and Capped Herons; Sunbittern (5 – unusually scarce this year); Sungrebe (6); Black Skimmer; Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns; Nacunda and Band-tailed Nighthawks; Spot-tailed Nightjars; at least one million kingfishers including American Pygmy, Green, Amazon and Ringed; Rufous-tailed Jacamar; Black-fronted Nunbird; Chestnut-eared Araçari; Toco Toucan; Campo Flicker; Bat Falcon; Nanday Parakeet; Giant Antshrike; Black-backed Water Tyrant; Purplish Jay; White-winged Swallow; Black-capped Donacobious; Orange-backed Troupial; Scarlet-headed Blackbird and Silver-beaked Tanager to name just a few.

Reptiles (very near bird relatives!) were also very impressive, including: Paraguay Caiman Lizard; Black-and-white Tegu and Green Iguana of note.

For landscape enthusiasts every fiery sunrise and sunset held something of interest but particularly the two or three with some cloud cover. At this time of year the landscape of the Pantanal turns yellow with the candle-like flowers of Cambará trees adding colour to backgrounds. In addition, the old

wooden bridges, watery margins and tree-lined riverbanks made great subjects.

Ecotourism has not been established in this region of Brazil for anything like as long as it has in the Amazon but services have developed quickly and the lodges, mostly diversified cattle ranches or ‘fazendas’, are very comfortable and made our stay a real pleasure. However, unfortunately the best thing about the 120km of the dusty Transpantaneira highway, or rather dirt track, is that its rickety nature and one million dilapidated bridges (well just over 120 actually) keeps speed and therefore the amount of traffic using it, down... although tourist numbers using it are steadily increasing so we think a visit sooner rather than later is a good idea. We were not able to able to experience the usual mega concentration of water birds in the borrow pits and marshes along its length that are normally seen at this time of year, owing to the birds being more widely spread thanks to higher than usual water levels, but the throng of herons, egrets, storks and ibises was still pretty impressive nevertheless, especially for Pantanal first-timers.

Roadside vegetation has also apparently grown up somewhat over the last couple of decades and

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Top: Common Woodshrike & below: Little Egret and flying fox, Gir Forest National Park.

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Large-billed Tern (above) & Southern Lapwing at Pousada Piuval.

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Black-and-White Tegu, probably the most impressive of the Pantanal’s lizards (close bird relatives!).

could do with being thinned out a bit. The spectacular Jaguar show alone makes the long journey to this quiet backwater of South America worthwhile but all this extra interest is a fabulous bonus for the photographer and we are very much looking forward to returning for many years to come! The only slight disappointment was that we didn’t manage to witness a caiman kill, as this is a definite possibility… maybe next time?

Our photo journey started at Cuiabá airport, hooking up with some of our folks who had already enjoyed a week in the southeast coastal rainforests of Brazil. We boarded our very comfortable coaster bus and headed for lunch at a typically Brazilian (‘pay for the weight of the food on your plate’) buffet restaurants before we set off southwest bound for the Pantanal. We passed a half-finished tramway intended for the 2014 soccer World Cup as we left Cuiabá’s twin-city of Varzea Grande and then made our way through the seemingly endless dry cerrado countryside towards the gateway to the Pantanal, Poconé. Formerly a centre for the trade of caiman and Jaguar skins this town is now bedecked in murals of the Pantanal’s spectacular animals as its ecotourism economy grows. Where

the hills give way to flat lands marks the start of the Pantanal proper, the tarmac ends and the Transpantaneira and its one million dilapidated wooden bridges begins.

Not far along the ‘highway’ we turned off to the picturesque Pousada Piuval, an attractive fazenda or cattle ranch, turned mini-ecotourism resort. Red-legged Seriemas and Whistling Heron were along the rough entrance track and Chestnut-eared Araçaris and Campo Flickers were in the trees around the lodge buildings itself. A wooden veranda overlooks the beginning of extensive marshy meadows packed with herons, egrets, ibises, Wood Storks and Snail Kites, towered over by stately Jabirus. After checking in to our rooms we headed out on a viewing trailer towed by a noisy tractor. Although in practice this was far from ideal for wildlife photography (the purpose-built safari truck is much better) our guide did manage to get us close to some good subjects in the form of the scarce and declining Chestnut-bellied Guan, a pair of stunning Black-and-White Tegus (enormous-headed lizards), Southern Lapwings and, amongst others, some lanky Rheas in very nice golden evening light. A couple of Sunbitterns would

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Previous page: Great Black Hawks (above) & a young Yacare Caiman in the evening sunshine at Piuval and this page:the mighty Jabiru!

have been given some attention had we known how scarce they would be this year and as dusk progressed, the mosquitoes increased and the sun ‘fell out of the sky’, as it does in these latitudes, so we called it a day and prepared for the first of many tasty evening meals.

We enjoyed clear skies and sunny weather for the majority of our time in the Pantanal and not a drop of rain. However, there had been some considerable rainfall in the preceding rainy season so water levels were a good deal higher than usual. Pousada Piuval is set in a vast seasonally flooded water meadow landscape interspersed with woodland copses and drier areas of termite mound pasture.

It must be quite a sight in the rainy season! Happily during the dry season access to all areas is easy and we were able to explore many of its driveable tracks. One of the photographic (and wildlife viewing) highlights of the whole tour was a very obliging Giant Anteater, that we saw crossing a marshy area near the Pousada’s observation tower one evening. We watched as it picked its way across watery channels, stopping occasionally to snuffle for insects in clumps of vegetation, before it eventually walked right underneath the boardwalk

we were stood on and continued on its way. Night drives at Piuval produced another three Giant Anteaters, although none as good as the daylight encounter, and several Crab-eating Foxes and Crab-eating Raccoons as well as a distant Ocelot in a termite mound pasture.

A boat ride on a large hyacinth-fringed lake was our first venture onto the water and a glimpse of things to come further south in the Pantanal. We enjoyed some good encounters with Southern Screamer, the ubiquitous and showy Rufescent Tiger Heron and the much more shy and retiring Boat-billed Heron. Amazon and Ringed Kingfishers were also common here as were Wattled Jacanas and the smart Black-capped Donacobius. Other photographic subjects were Black-collared Hawk and Snail Kite as well as Large-billed Tern although without a cloud in the sky and highly reflective vegetation and water, the light soon became very harsh and it was time to head back for lunch. At this time of day there is nothing much to do except head for the shadows. Leaving the dwindling water bodies of Piuval behind we continued south on the Transpantaneira and under the famous wooden gate, pausing for the obligatory group photo of

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Black-capped Donacobius, a common inhabitant of water hyacinth beds in the Pantanal.

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Left: the diminutive Bat Falcon at Santa Isabela Road and right: Chestnut-eared Araçari at Rio Claro.

course. The borrow pits here were a little disappointing, as were the concentrations of waterbirds in general along the highway, interesting but not jaw dropping as they can be when there is less water in the landscape. A pair of Brazilian Teal was notable as were some smart Orange-backed Troupials on fruit feeders after lunch at Pixaim. We also stopped at the famous Santa Isabela Road and explored a little around its derelict old research station, seeing a Bat Falcon, Blue-crowned Trogon, Greater Rufous Woodcreeper and Black-fronted Nunbird of note, however, the woodland here was generally fairly quiet in the late afternoon.

At the end of the road lay Porto Jofre and the Hotel Pantanal Norte, the traditional base camp for Jaguar searchers. Although Charlie Munn’s Flotel moored upstream saves around two hours cruising on the river each day we like the idea of the flexibility of staying on dry land, a little way from the insect life and a chance to stretch our legs in bird filled gardens if anyone feels like a break from the Jaguar boat rides. From a photographer’s point of view the boat ride to and from the main Jaguar zone is usually done in less than ideal photographic light anyway, at dawn, the middle of the day and

in the evening twilight. We were welcomed at the hotel’s gates by our flamboyant host Nelson and settled in to our rooms.

The Rio Cuiabá is an 800km long, broad, slow flowing and silt-laden river that eventually drains southwards into the River Plate and into the Atlantic between Uruguay and Argentina. It passes through the Pantanal region, where the smaller Rio São Lourenço joins it. It is around, as well as upstream of, this confluence that the majority of Jaguar sightings occur. This area is particularly rich in wildlife and the favourite prey of Jaguars – Capybaras, caimans and anacondas, which can be hunted from the riverbanks. The water margin also provides an easy way for the Jaguars to move around as well as sunlit windows to the gallery forest where they like to sit in the early morning. We also think that they are curious and, like many big cats, maybe they simply like to sit and watch the world go by from the riverbank? Our first boat ride was successful and after a couple of near misses, we managed to see a Jaguar at the first attempt, a very special moment for all, however, it was visible for only a matter of seconds. Happily our next encounters would be much more prolonged!

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Prehistoric-looking Southern Screamers, which look like they were made from spare parts of other birds.

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Jaguar, the big boss waits for his lady friend on the banks of the Rio São Lourenço.

Other wildlife today included a group of three majestic Blue-and-Yellow Macaws flying downstream, our first Giant Otter, powering upstream, close to the riverbank, snorting for air as it went, some great close encounters with Yacare Caimans, a White-tailed Hawk and our first Collared Plover, Rufous-tailed Jacamar and Rusty-collared Seedeater. The afternoon session fired a blank in terms of Jaguars but there was still plenty of time left.

Cruising back downstream, nocturnal Capped Herons had started to appear in riverside trees and a profusion of fishing bats, nighthawks and nightjars were hawking low over the water.

Over the next four days we settled into a very enjoyable routine of a pre-dawn breakfast and a morning boat ride before returning to our hotel for lunch and then an afternoon/evening boat ride exploring the river channels upstream from our hotel.

Our second morning was action-packed with an early encounter with a mating pair that we would see another two times during our stay. However, they had chosen a tricky wooded section of riverbank and we couldn’t manage much in the way of unobscured photos. Next came a very obliging female hunting along a section of the Rio Cuiabá,

working her way along an extensive bed of water hyacinth before melting into the gallery forest on the riverbank. We later found her again a little way further upstream and had her to ourselves but by this time the reflected light had become too harsh for photos. Earlier this morning we had also figured out that there is a daily dawn post-roosting flight of Toco Toucans north across the river at the hotel, peaking at 53 one morning. An amazing sight! On the afternoon boat ride we found the mating pair again and were treated to our best portrait opportunity of the female, lying on the riverbank in light shade and allowing some super-sharp full frame images of her licking her lips, yawning and looking on disapprovingly before she had eventually had enough and sloped back into the stygian gloom of the gallery forest when more boats started to arrive.

After a while on the rivers the days and memories of what was seen on each ride seem to merge into one as we kept a running total of Jaguar sightings.

The reason we have more days on the river than almost every other tour company (only a couple that we know of had the same number of days at five) is that the more time you spend there simply

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Yawn! Jaguars have uniquely different spot patterns as can be seen on the two females on the previous page.

means more Jaguar encounters and no two encounters are ever the same. A couple of the cats we saw were not at all obliging, one curtailed a riverbank walk when the flotilla of Jaguar-spotting boats built up and another cut short its nap on a riverbank tree when the number of boats reached about five. Shame as the latter was only a few minutes upstream of the hotel and maybe prowled the grounds at night during our stay? We caught up with the mating pair again at dusk one day, as they made their way quietly along the edge of one of our favourite backwaters, with not another boat in sight it was a marvelous sighting although too dark for perfect photos. The female seemed to be getting a little bored by the male’s attentions and we witnessed some fighting this time. She was still following him though, big cats like it rough! Our most prolonged sightings of all came towards the end of our stay and involved the famous National Geographic caiman killing video star. We had seen a new video of him taken by one of our neighbours at the hotel, diving into a channel onto a caiman and dragging it up the bank and away into the grass to devour it. When we caught up with him, he was slumbering in a backwater channel with a consid-

erable audience of fans. Occasionally he would snarl at us before flopping back down to sleep. He is a monstrously powerful male with a half-shut right eye that he has had for at least a year now and it does nothing to improve his looks! In fact it makes him look even more of a brute.

Eventually he had enough attention and retired into the shade a few metres back from the edge of the bank. The following morning he was on the prowl again and hunting along the riverbank of the main river around one kilometre away. We did not see him catch anything but he slid through a bed of hyacinth into the muddy waters and swam a bit for us. Amazing that after eating a caiman two days previously he was already hungry again! We had another prolonged late morning sighting in the same area, way upstream along the São Lourenço River, of a walking cat although it also veered off after a while, to follow a line of trees in the hinterland. Such is the density of Jaguars here that I imagine if you walked the riverbank in this area it would not take you long to bump into a Jaguar. We did not see anyone walking the riverbank and the only other folks around here were in boats - fellow Jaguar watchers plus a few fishermen. If there is

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This is the famous National Geographic caiman-killer, sleeping off his meal and then back hunting again next day!

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Above: another Jaguar on the prowl on the riverbank and below: the caiman-killer takes to the water in search of prey.

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Previous pages: Giant Otters along the Rio São Lourenço and this page: Black Howler Monkey in a Cambará tree.

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Watcher in the water - Yacare Caiman.

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Making use of dark shadows - Buff-necked Ibis.and previous page: Southern Crested Caracara.

an easier and more pleasant way to photograph wildlife than cruising on the quiet waterways of the Pantanal I haven’t experienced it yet.

Other wildlife during the course of our stay at Porto Jofre included plenty of Blue-throated Piping Guans and the equally impressive Bare-faced Curassow.

Southern Screamers were common, even on the small lake behind the hotel and sometimes allowed some good views in flight but Sunbittern was strangely almost completely absent. Grey-necked Wood Rails could be seen along the water’s edge in the evenings and sand bars now exposed in the river were frequented by Southern Lapwings, Pied Plovers, Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns and Black Skimmers. A constant supply of parrots and pigeons flying overhead kept the inveterate birders happy but otherwise bird diversity was fairly low along the river. On our last evening here we did some much more extensive spotlighting along the riverbank and although we did not manage to find a tapir we did tally 10 Boat-billed Herons, which had come out to fish in the dark. We also added to the mammal list in the shape of Black Howler Monkey and Neotropical River Otter (no photos of this shy creature though). We spent our final morning at

Porto Jofre around its gardens and enjoyed some good encounters with Toco Toucans, the resident breeding Hyacinth Macaws, Buff-necked Ibises as well as the ubiquitous Southern Crested Caracaras. A Brazilian Porcupine was sleeping high in a fig tree as we said goodbye to this excellent place.

Retracing our route back north along the Transpantaneira we made our way to a lovely lodge at Rio Claro. As its name implies the river here is clear and not laden with silt, a spring-fed blackwater river absolutely full of wildlife. Another fazenda turned eco-tourist resort, Rio Claro, has a nice atmosphere with a large communal dining hall and fruit-laden trees surrounding the lodge buildings.

We enjoyed our best views of many birds here like Chestnut-eared Araçari and Nanday Parakeet – a Pantanal speciality and the rive cruises themselves were fabulous. With only miniscule traffic the much narrower Rio Claro is a haven for wildlife.

During the course of three boat rides we saw tapir twice and the sought-after Sungrebe six times.

However, it was the real ‘beauty of the shadows’, which stole the show, the gorgeous Agami Heron.

Known as ‘Hummingbird Waterbird’ in Portuguese it is beautifully ornate but rarely strays from the

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Previous pages: Rio Claro landscapes; Striated Heron (above) & Agami Heron and this page (clockwise from top): Black Vulture on a Giant Otter carcass; Sungrebe; Black-collared Hawk; Rufous-tailed Jacamar & Chestnut-bellied Guan.

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Green Kingfisher (above) & Amazon Kingfisher (below) - the Pantanal is literally full of kingfishers!

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Black Skimmer in evening sunlight on the Rio Cuiabá.

Black Skimmer on the Rio Cuiabá (above) and Little Cuckoo plus sphinx moth caterpillar, Rio Claro.

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Rufescent Tiger Herons, Rio Claro (adult above).

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Previous page: Rio Claro landscape and this page: Pouso Alegre sunset.

shade of overhanging riverside vegetation, moving incredibly slowly and occasionally stabbing at tiny fish in the shallows with its extra long bill. Now familiar species such as Black-collared Hawk and Great Black Hawk were both easier to see here as were the kingfishers and other herons, which again included Boat-billed and gazillions of Rufescent Tiger Herons. We also saw another couple of Sunbitterns and a pair of Golden-collared Macaws and some smaller stuff that included Narrow-billed Woodcreeper, Mato Grosso Antbird, Giant Antshrike and a Little Cuckoo, which after some difficulty, managed to dislodge a huge sphinx moth caterpillar from some vegetation overhanging the water and take it away for supper.

One afternoon we also visited the excellent Pouso Alegre lodge, where the undoubted highlight was another Giant Anteater, again spending its time during the heat of the day cooling off in a marsh.

It was rooting around in the vegetation under the boardwalk and sometimes walked right beneath the assembled admirers. Pouso Alegre has a much more remote feel about it than the other lodges, being further from the Transpantaneira. On a sunny afternoon, Azara’s Agoutis scuttled through the

lodge grounds and the ominous droning sound of African (Killer) Bees could be heard overhead. The drive back to Rio Claro was eventful in as much as we saw seven other vehicles out spot-lighting but we still managed another six Crab-eating Foxes, a couple of Crab-eating Raccoons and both Red and Brown Brocket Deer.

All too soon our Brazilian adventure came to an end, we headed along the Transpantaneira one last time and back to the relative hustle and bustle of Varzea Grande where, after another plate-weighing buffet, we went our separate ways. Thanks to everyone who made this tour so much fun and we are looking forward to returning next year for more Jaguar action on the riverbank.

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It’s on! Speeding towards another Jaguar sighting on the Rio Cuiabá.

See you on the riverbank next year?

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