Pantanal 2019 & 2020

[hubertj]

Thanks for the answer Jeremie. Refugio da Ilha was the alternative re-booking option BA offered us, so I'm currently considering whether to go to Baia das Pedras for entire week or rather split our time between those two lodges (adding 1 or 2 extra nights).

Could you maybe share any links to the trip reports giving more insight on Refugio da Ilha? I couldnt't find any, here on Safaritalk.

[jeremie]

1 hour ago, hubertj said:

Thanks for the answer Jeremie. Refugio da Ilha was the alternative re-booking option BA offered us, so I'm currently considering whether to go to Baia das Pedras for entire week or rather split our time between those two lodges (adding 1 or 2 extra nights).

Could you maybe share any links to the trip reports giving more insight on Refugio da Ilha? I couldnt't find any, here on Safaritalk.

 

@Atravelynncan give you a lot of tips for sure!

https://www.safaritalk.net/topic/3792-adventures-of-the-white-rumped-monjita/

[hubertj]

Oh, thanks a lot ! Somehow I missed it (I guess it must have been buried in the search results because the topic is 12 years old already). Lots of information and fun to read, too bad that photos are no longer available.

[Bush dog]

When you have been to BA, it's difficult to find another place of the same level.  I've been there 8 times between 2006 and 2014.  I've been also one time to Refugio da Ilha.  I really enjoyed it.  On the other hand, I did not like Aguape.  Caiman was, perhaps still is, not flexible at all in terms of choice of activities.  Everything was planned in advance and not subject to changes.  I would go to Baia das Pedras ( been there twice) without an hesitation.

[jeremie]

I eventually release my last pictures from FBA. It's probably the best place to take good pictures of netropical otters, which like to spend lot's of time looking for fishes in the burrows along the cliffs made of clay of the Rio Negro... And Barranco Alto is just the perfect place, as Barranco means Cliff in portuguese!

 

You can easily find otters from kayak less than 500 meters up and downstream from the Fazenda, which is an oustanding way to have intimate encounters!

 

 

[jeremie]

And now we can focus on jaguars and Porto Jofré....

[jeremie]

[Toxic]

Thank you for posting these @jeremie- I would have missed this thread entirely if you hadn't!  What absolutely beautiful photos, you have a real talent.  The lighting, the angle and the colours are just jaw dropping.  The level of detail you've captured as well is incredible.

 

Thanks for sharing with us! Living vicariously through all the trip reports past and present on here right now. 

 

[jeremie]

I will start with our second trip in Porto Jofré from last February 2021 and let the best safari from September 2020 for the end

 

We were desperate to breathe in the middle of the Covid pandemic. And decided to visit the Pantanal in the middle of the rainy seasons, with herds of mosquitoes. Well... It's true that Pantanal is quite hard with bugs during the rains... But the were lucky enough to have some good days with little rains. We only got 2 cold rainy days without jaguar sightings, but managed to see jaguars all the other days with the river only for us! 

Finding jaguars without the radio is according to André Moratelli not as easy, but we managed to find many of them on the Tres Irmaos river quite far away. Cats were hard to spot on the Cuiaba river, with lush vegetation that quickly recovered after the 2020 hevay fires inside the reserve. Fishermen saw them every day on the Cuiaba river, but we didn't. However, we were very happy to know 4 nex cats for us: Xingu a young male who will probably be a the next dominant male in the Upper Tres Irmaos river area, Darryl and Constantina the siblings, sons of Susana, and male Tuparai.

 

We saw Xingu every days starting with Day 1 exept the rainy days. He was lazy and eating caimans he killed in a wonderful area, where the river flooded everywhere around the rivers. He was located on a very small strip of land surrounded by water. And we saw a maximum of 4 cats in one morning.

 

But let's start with general sightings...

[janzin]

Fabulous photos as always and I am glad to hear the area has recovered somewhat after the fires. If you can I'd love to hear more about what impact the fires had on the jaguars and other wildlife in the area.

 

[Zim Girl]

Beautiful set of pictures, the otter shots are stunning!

[jeremie]

@janzinwell, my opinion is that if it is true Pantanal was impactated by massive fires, this had some effects but in my opinion the impact was less that what was released in the news. I will try to explain my point which is not easy as pasions are heavy on this kind of subject.

 

The Pantanal is a tipical savanah habitat, which use to be flooded everyyears. That's an important consideration as fires are compulsory to maintain the habitat in savannahs biomes worldwide... But the amount of fires that ocurred in Pantanal during 2020 was much larger than any normal and natural fire that would ocurre there for sure.

 

The second point is that some species can move easily, and others, such as reptiles, just can't escapes the flames. 

I would expect that reptiles and slow moving species migh have died a lot during the fires, countrary than large animals such as jaguars, tapirs or even deers. Those species can move quickly and found refuge in the marshes along the rivers and channels. We indeed saw many marsh deers in the Tres Irmaos river in 4 diferent ocasions in September 2020, which shows that they survived well. One of them was the kill a jaguars though... just on the bank of the Tres Irmaos river...

 

The vegetation is really used to recover after fires. The reserve was indeed completly burnt along the rivers, with the exception of small streched of everygreen riverine forest. But main trees did not die because of the fires, because they are used to natural fires in the Pantanal, as said before, it's a savanah biome. So the vegetation was not impacted in the long term. We were quite surprise to see that the vegetation entirely recovered in February 2021, it was all green and grasslands were lush green, covered with high grass, and trees had recovered as expetected.

 

We did see a tapir that was locally burnt by the fires or ashes, but I would not expect that many died. Jaguars move and were not impacted, a very small proportion of the population had some paws partially burnt, but the large majority were ok. We did see a cat that was sedated by reseachers and treated on its paws, but 2 days after he was eating the marsh deer killed by another cat... All ok though....

 

I feel that there were an over reaction of the impact of the fires, with a sort of propaganda that cats will die etc. Well, very few spoke about the reptiles and other small and slow moving mammals which did die due to the fires...

 

We even saw some activists feedind some water buffaloes, invasive species there... They did not eat anything of what was given to them by these activists.... It seemed very stupid to me indeed. Some asociations took advantage of that situation to ask for donations, and I guess they spent this money and low value added activities.

 

We also have to compare of the impacts of huge floods, that use to kill much more animals than large fires. For example, armadillos almost disapeared of some areas in Northern Pantanal after some huge floods decades ago, acording to locals. We do have to balance of the real effects of those fires, in comparison with other natural disasters.

 

I don't say that fires is not a problem though. Actually, I am really afraid that more fires could affect Pantanal this year and the next years. Pantanal is now in a very dry cycle, and rains were. very low in early 2020 as comapred with 5 years ago for instance. the problem is that some areas will be totally dried up before the next rainy season, some areas will even not be flooded though... and animals will just die because they will not have water to survive in the months before the rains... This would be much worse than any of the other impacts in my own opinion. For isntance, Bento Gomes river, which crosses Piuval and the Transpantaneira river, was just fooded by late February this year... Normally this happen in November o Diciember in normal years... As a consequence, many wildlife that use to live there, such as caimans, marsh deers, or event giant otters, might suffer a lot from these droughts, especially if this succeeds during 2-3 years in a row.... 

I am very afraid that this might happen as water level is very low right now and it's only early August...

 

I expect I made my point and answered to your doubts

[janzin]

Thank you @jeremie, for your thorough analysis, this is both reassuring and concerning at the same time!

 

[jeremie]

Day 1

 

We see our first jaguar, Xingu. He is a young 2-years male who will rule the Upper area of the Tres Irmaos river in the next years.

 

He was in the open, just upstream the Cachiri channel, very far from Porto Jofré. He was quite uneasy, we probably think he was bothered by fishermen before we came. Just after I took the picture, he walked 50 meters and sat inside the bushes and stayed there during the whole day, sleeping and ignoring us...

 

Other relevant sightings were Osprey and giant otters...

 

A very good first day, which proves that jaguar can be seen during the rainy season. We were literally the only boat on the river to search for jaguars... Alone, in the Pantanal... A jaguar only for us!

 

 

[jeremie]

Day 2

 

The rains come.... We don't see any cat ourselves, but fishermen saw everyday on the Cuiaba river... It was a good time for giant otters, and for mosquitoes!

[jeremie]

Day 3

 

Again, the rains were hard. We received showers of rain in the Corixo Negro and on the Cuiaba river... We probably got our best picutres of giant otters. And Sunset were extraordinary!

[jeremie]

Since 2006 Caroline Leuchtenberger has been studying giant otters in the Pantanal and founded in 2019 the Giant Otter Project. The project has been working in identifying all giant otters groups and individuals within Porto Jofré region. I guess I have met with 4 diferent giant otter groups in my two last trips.

First set of pictures is from the Tres Irmaos group, and the second batch of pictures is from the Piquiri group. I also met with the Sao Bento group in both trips, as well as a couple of adult otters from another group I couldn't identify.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by jeremie

[jeremie]

The rains end and jaguars appear back again!

 

We first saw Tuparai male hunting along the bank of Tres Irmaos up Caxiri river... after 5 minutes we lose him as he continues inside the flooded plain in search of caimans...

 

We decided to continue up the Tres Irmaos river, and discovered a caiman kill on the Carmindo Corixo. But the cat is not there... A fisherman boat saw it 2 minutes before...

 

We then saw in the shade, with bad light conditions, male Darryl with his sister Constantina, bot son of Suzana.

 

3 cats this morning! That was great!

 

 

[jeremie]

Two more pictures from Constantina...

[jeremie]

[jeremie]

Our travel agency was the local, family owned Jaguarpantanalsafaris.

https://www.pantanaljaguarsafaris.com/jaguar-safaris

 

André was born and raised in Cuiaba and studied biology in the same city. He met Leen and both started guiding in the Pantanal and the Chapada dos Guimaraes, being involved in jaguar safaris tourism since the very early stages.

 

They know every single corner of the region and decided to start they own business focusing in high quality guiding. They focus is to provide the best experience for there clients, and work with a local network of the best guides in the Pantanal.

 

We have been working 3 times with them and discovered very good, high skilles guides, total flexibility, guies really involved in conservation and who love what they are doing. First trip was in 2015 in Pouso Alegre, Pixaim area and Paraguay river with Artur for guide. Segond trip was in September 2020 with André and Ben Freitas in Porto Jofré and Piuval. Third and last trip was in February 2021 in Porto Jofré, Piuval, The Chapada and Nobres.

https://www.pantanaljaguarsafaris.com/the-team

 

I definitely recommend the company, it's a very serious agency that will definitely make their best to guive the best experiences as posible. 

[jeremie]

But the real star of our February 2021 safari was Xingu! We saw him almost every day, sleeping and snoring... Best sightings were at the end of the trip... First afternoon here close to his caiman kill

[jeremie]

Last afternoon, Xingu was still in the same area, and after a long nap decided to move... 20 meters away, in an area where the background was composed of the flooded plains just a couple of meters back the narrow strip of land that makes the bank of the river. It was a quite unusual sighting and offered us interesting oportunities to take pictures.

 

I hope you will apreciate them!

[Caracal]

3 hours ago, jeremie said:

I hope you will apreciate them!

 

I'm loving your  photos @jeremie  they're all stunning portraits of a magnificent animal.

[jeremie]

We then went back to the area of Pocone and stayed 3 nights in some fazendas: 1 nights, 2 full safaris at Pouso Alegre (my best place in Northern Pantanal), and 2 nights, 4 full safaris, in Piuval.

 

We had many sightings but I have actually not edited a lot of pictures from this part of the trip.

 

We had multiple marsh deer sightings in Pouso Alegre, there were around 15 deers just around the pousada. Many coatis too. We had amazing tapir sightings too  We saw tapir every time we went on safaris and going in and out the property!

This was really cool indeed! We saw less mazama deers in Pouso Alegre as compared as 2015, probably because the property was very green so that deers do not need to come close to the road where Luiz usually burns the grass to benefit wildlife sightings.

 

We loved to new tower in the middle of the marshes, it was build to enjoy the scenaries, contrary to other towers such as the ones in Piuval, Araras or in the Amazon where the focus is birds in the canopy.

 

There was also a jaguar around the Pousada that killed some horses just days before we visited Pouso Alegre. 

 

At Piuval, we succeeded to have a sighting of a gian ant eater but could not come very close. I indeed do not have any decent pictures from 2021, but you will see later the pictures form 2020 that are oustanding!

We missed the jaguars again, there is currently a matriach with two cubs and a male resident in the property. We hade very good sighting of brocket deers, but missed tapirs this time. Piuval really offers really nice sightings, it definitely recommend it.