The temperatures in Brazil’s Pantanal have been over 100 degrees every day. The sun is glaringly bright. But the wildlife is pretty cool. Here are a few images to get you thinking about what may follow when we get back home. I haven’t sorted any photos nor downloaded the SD cards yet. So I am hoping these are rather sharp….but remember these are just the teasers for what will follow. Viva Brazil.
The first image is of a six foot yellow anaconda. There will be plenty of anaconda blogs as this isn’t the only one we saw, or the only story to be told.
The second image is the head of a giant otter. The sharp teeth catch fish and the rest of the teeth crunch up the poor thing. The noise of their, open-mouthed, chewing can be heard for quite some distance.
The next two images are of two of the jaguars we found while working from a small boat while on a few of the rivers at the end of the Transpantaneira road. There is only one road here and no other options for a hundred miles east or west. Pretty remote. The best way to travel is by boat when there are rivers. Most of the area is seasonally flooded vegetated wetlands with no transport except on horseback. There are a hundred bridges along the road.
The next image shows a small group of the world’s largest rodent, the capybara, swimming in one of the waterways. Jaguars like to eat both caiman and capybaras. Caiman are a South American alligator.
The final photo is of a capped heron, one of the 230 bird species we have seen so far. There are more photos and narrative just waiting. So hang in there, more to come.
On The Road With DEC 