The Pantanal - Brazil 2016
Day 6 - Jaguar Flotel
This morning’s boat safari started with jaguar speed, straight to where Peter Schmidt the jaguar had been sighted by the 6am start photography tour group - Peter was first seen in 2010 as a full grown male. He was radio-collared around 2013 and the collar fell off in 2015. He got into a fight earlier this year (in June), which is when he started limping. He is probably at least 9 years old.
As we arrived the others in the group saw a quick glance of him, but I didn’t manage to see him, he was in quite dense vegetation. I was quite miserable, because if I didn’t see him, I couldn’t count him as a sighting! All the boats including ours were heading in one direction when all of sudden I spotted him walking in the opposite direction. On the spin of a jaguar I was once again all happiness and smiles and quickly started to try and get some photos of him. He never came out into the open, walking along the tree line for a matter of seconds before he disappeared again.
In all honesty, this was the kind of sightings I was expecting to see, quick glances or in deep vegetation and the fact we had already had some excellent sightings we were due some not so high quality sightings too. Nonetheless, it was another sighting and jaguar number 6.
The caiman’s principal method of impressing potential mates is to bellow. It lifts its head and arches its tail and produces perhaps the most characteristic of crocodilian signals. The bellow involves a lot of low-frequency sound, much of it below our threshold of hearing. This is called "infrasound" and it travels long distances through the water. The intensity of vibrations that the caiman produces is so great, it literally causes shallow water over its back to "dance" for a brief moment.
More exploration of the shallow ‘dead-end’ waterways rewarded us with more bird sightings and an iguana. Before we moved back into the deeper water where we spent a little time with a small group of capybara.
It was time to head back to the Flotel and we were on our way when there must have been a jaguar call. When we arrived (just before 11am) at the sighting location there was only one boat which made us think we had missed it. We slowed to a complete stop when I noticed the water hyacinths moving and sure enough Marley popped his head out the greenery! “Hey guys! You haven’t got this pose”, working his best vogue poses, Marley put on another excellent national geographic display of hyacinth poses, before swimming posing, lazing on the beach poses, before finishing with his hunting (unsuccessfully) caiman poses.
With several hundred more shots of Marley we happily returned 45 minutes late at the Flotel. This would mean we would go out 45 minutes later this afternoon, no problem, I was going to need that time to look through our photos!
Yellow-billed Cardinal
Grayish Saltator
Afernoon Boat Safari
After lunch and more bird spotting at the Flotel we headed out at 14:45 down into one of the dead-end waterways where we encountered a lone giant river otter. We spent 20 minutes with him watching him hunt fish & eels. It was fascinating watching the caiman slide into the water in the hope that they could steal his prey off him. Hence, he would take his meals into the dead tree branches to help protect him & his meal from those that might try to take it from him. When he caught his eel he left the narrow waterway going out into one of the main rivers, where a group of giant river otters made it very clear he was not welcome and sent him packing. We watched them do their wee-dance before going back into their den.
Yellow Rumped Cacique
Towards the end of the afternoon we had a surprise encounter with a water buffalo and decided to drink our sundowners with its company. A non-endemic species, buffalo were introduced to help protect the herds of domestic cattle that graze in the Pantanal farmlands. When first introduced their young were taken by jaguars & pumas but they soon learned to defend themselves by protectively encircling their young. There are questions as to whether they are causing more damage & harm to the eco-system than the benefits they may bring to the protection of their domestic cousins.
Onwards, we stopped again for a really cute scene of two baby capybara’s lying on their mother’s back, before our final stop for some sunset shots.
Day 7 - Jaguar Flotel
Our last full day at the Jaguar Flotel was to be our quietest day. No-one was seeing jaguars, we looked and looked and I’m sure many saw us, but they managed to elude us. The morning’s highlight was seeing a capuchin monkey and a little cuckoo.
Afternoon Boat Safari
Giant River Otter
An even quieter afternoon, at the end of it we found a giant river otter to watch, but then a jaguar call came in and we rushed to the scene. What was at the time thought to be a mating pair but was in fact a mother and mature cub (jaguars 7 & 8). We could only see the tops of their heads and their sides when they moved. We waited and waited, until the sunset and all the boats had moved away. We got one final glance of their heads before we had to head back having to go at super ‘racing back to the Flotel before its completely dark’ speed. Alan & I were sat at the front of the boat and had all the evening flies hitting us in the face. I put my hat over my face to help protect it and looked at the view through one of the ventilation holes!
Racing back to the Flotel before sunset
Flies stuck to Alan's Face!
Back at the Flotel we showered off the flies and cleaned up our glasses & cameras before our last Flotel dinner. This was a wonderful place and we had really enjoyed our time here. I think to maximise your chances of getting at least one good sighting of a jaguar you do need the 4 nights. There was plenty of other wildlife to keep us interested in between sightings, but it did show us that we did have some incredible good luck on our first trip out!
Day 8 - Jaguar Flotel to Porto Jofre
Osprey
After breakfast we finished packing and took our bags down to the boat. We had one more short trip out with junior before we had to get back to Porte Jofre. There had been a sighting that morning, but it was in dense cover and quite a distance away, so after starting to head towards it we turned back towards Porte Jofre, we were nearly back at the Flotel again when Chris & Alan spotted two jaguars on the beach. As we slowed down they ran up into the trees, where we could hear them growling. This was a mating pair. We had just missed seeing them a couple of days ago. They were clearly still in the area. Better views than last night’s jaguars, however, it was impossible to get a nice clear shot of them. But still, we thought we were done with our jaguar sightings and here were number 9 & 10.
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