Hear that roar: Jaguars in the wetlands of Brazil’s Pantanal
It’s been a bit over a year now but a picture of a loving couple of hyacinth macaws still displays as my phone’s background, just as the powerful roar of a male jaguar protecting his territory reverberates through my diaphragm like a carnival-inspired beat. It’s not that I want any of these memories to fade, but I’m surprised at how they still have a hold on me. I shouldn’t be: you can’t help but be amazed in the wild Brazilian Pantanal.
The Pantanal is the largest tropical wetlands in the world, located right in the belly of South America, where Brazil meets Bolivia meets Paraguay. I specify ‘tropical’ because – besides my strong desire for accuracy – at 81,000 square miles it’s smaller than the 1 million square miles of the West Siberian Lowland. Even so, Pantanal is half of the size of France and fourteen times the size of the Florida Everglades… Its grandeur becomes even more impressive when measured by biodiversity:more than 650 bird species streak the sky; while 120 mammals, 80 different reptiles, 60 amphibians, and 260 fishes can be found below. Not to mention almost 2,500 plant species. Brazil is after all the most biodiverse country in the world. Like I said, you can’t help but be amazed. The intensity and variety of colours, contrasts, textures, and feelings can be overwhelming even for someone who was born and raised in Brazil.
I’m tempted to say it’s less of a landscape than a living orchestra, with each note wild and alive. That’s certainly the case when you’re perched at sunset in an open-sided Land Rover, capturing the last rays of the sun reflecting on the rosettes of a prowling jaguar. Or when, from the cockpit of a plane a few hundred metres up in the sky, you begin to finally fathom the abundance of water, the flow of the rivers, the endless greenery. Or indeed the unexpected sierras rising on the horizonas you drive from Campo Grande to one of the hosting fazendas (Brazilian Portuguese for ranches/farms).
Much of the accommodation available in the Pantanal is in fact on working livestock farms, filled with pantaneiros pasturing on horseback, in a zone of high concentration of predators such as the jaguar. The native people of the Pantanal and Chaco regions, particularly the indigenous Kadiwéu, were considered the pioneers of horse use in South America. They mastered it not only as a tool for economic prosperity, but also as a means of resisting European conquest for more than three centuries.
When it comes to the weather, a special corner of the world like this one surely plays with seasons. For these lands to flood like they do, it must rain a lot, and rain it does – starting shyly towards the end of November and not easing up until April. This period is cold, wet and… flooded. But despite the challenges presented by the weather, the reflection of the skies on the flooded plane gives a vibe of Monet’s Tropical Water Lillies, flocked with aquatic birds like the Jabiru Stork.
And then as the rains cease, the land starts to dry and mammals go in search of water courses, making it easier to spot them. From April to June the weather is mild, with warm days and chill nights, making a pleasant time for safari. It’s the perfect time of the year to watch the starry nights while savouring a fine Brazilian barbecue and a strong cocktail – the Brazilian way. From July until October, temperatures are much higher, reaching 90°F. Water is now scarce, forcing wildlife to concentrate in or near the rivers and lagoons, creating the best time of the year to spot the widest variety of creatures, and yes, that includes jaguars and often their cubs.This is also bird mating season, in which they perform their love symphony with the blooming pink Piuva trees as the stage backdrop.
Whether you spend your day on top of a 4×4 searching for jaguars, or pushing through the grasses on foot on the trail of a giant anteater, throughout the year the day ends back at the fazenda for food, drink and conversation. When evening falls, chatting around a fire pit under the stars is not uncommon: everyone wants to share their daily sightings and adventures of course, but the real talk starts when your hosts share stories from the past, and explain the transformation which ecotourism has brought to these lands, along with the growing feeling of the need to preserve it.
On my last trip, I was hosted by Caiman, a pioneering model of how ecotourism and cattle ranching can coexist. The lodge works much like a safari lodge in Africa offering daily game drives; while the working ranch makes for evenings of no-frills Brazilian barbecue shared with the cowboys to the sound of old sertanejo music – the Brazilian equivalent of country music. You can swap out game drives for horseback rides, rustling cattle like a real wrangler. It’s like blending a safari trip with a stay at an estancia.
At Trufflepig, we’ve been following the Pantanal closely for 20 years, through fires, floods, and milestones. We’ve seen jaguar sightings go from rare to almost guaranteed, thanks to the persistence of conservationists and the regenerative power of the land itself. So on top of being a prosperous fazenda and a spectacular lodge, Caiman is also a hub for some of the most important conservation initiatives in the Pantanal. The Onçafari project, for instance, has been leading jaguar habituation and research there for over a decade. Most recently they started a robust fire prevention project to mitigate wildfires, common in this ecosystem, but also to act on man-made ones. Similarly, the Instituto Arara Azul, has been working tirelessly to protect the endangered hyacinth macaw, the world’s largest parrot, along with many other fascinating bird species. Hence my phone background…
So, come for the jaguars, and leave with a deeper respect for conservation, a taste for Brazilian barbecue, and a newfound appreciation for the eccentric beauty of the Pantanal’s wildlife.
