A return to the Pantanal Sept. '22: The best-laid plans oft go awry....

[janzin]

The cubs went into the forest so we decided to move away from the other boats, and see if they might come out at the other end of the channel.

 

When we got to the very entrance to the channel sure enough, one of the boys was starting to swim across.

 

 

 

But wait...what is that in the water? Is it a caiman? Lunchtime!!

 

 

Hmmmm it's not swimming away...perhaps its not a caiman after all...

 

 

Nope, definitely too tough to be a caiman.  Hope I don't break a tooth on this.

 

 

It's just a piece of flotsam.  I'm so disappointed, no lunch for me yet!

 

 

He looks so dejected!!

Edited January 18, 2023 by janzin

[Atravelynn]

Esther Williams.  I know, I'm old.  Such excellent activity in the water!

[janzin]

45 minutes ago, Atravelynn said:

Esther Williams.  I know, I'm old.  Such excellent activity in the water!

[Zim Girl]

Love the disappointed jaguar!  Fabulous pictures.

[janzin]

At this point there's not much narrative and I want to get this moving again, so basically here's the sightings from that afternoon. 

Returning at some point after lunch we found one of the cubs sleeping in their favorite tree.

 

 

Eventually he woke up!

 

 

And later joined by his brother in the grass.

 

 

 

After awhile we were getting tired of these cubs (not really!) but decided to go see what might be happening elsewhere. Back along the river we found some new birds!

 

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Not new but hadn't photographed one of these well yet on this trip.

 

 

Have I posted a caiman yet?

 

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And more jacamars. Surprising how many we saw, they seemed to be all over.

 

[janzin]

I casually mentioned to Raquel that we'd yet to photograph a jaguar strolling along a sandy beach. 

 

Be careful what you wish for!

 

Towards the very end of the day, in nice golden light, we found one!

 

 

Using the Jaguar ID book I have determined that this is Patricia, mother of the cubs Kasmir and Krishna. She has a very distinct spot pattern on her side that is clearly shown in the book.

 

\

 

We followed her slowly as she went in and out of the foliage. And, to make matters even better, we were the only boat there.

 

 

 

 

A nice end to the day! But we still had one last full day on the water tomorrow. Will we be as lucky?

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by janzin

[Zubbie15]

Those last photos of the jaguar on the beach are awesome! 

[Kitsafari]

all caught up now. gorgeous images, @janzin so many jaguar sightings!

[janzin]

16 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

all caught up now. gorgeous images, @janzin so many jaguar sightings!

I kinda lost count of how many individuals, there were the six (two moms, four cubs) and then at least three other individuals--I think!

 

A couple more to come on our last day...hope to get to that shortly!

[janzin]

Our last full day on the river....

 

But first, a funny interlude.  Every morning we were very much on-time to meet Raquel at the boat at 6:30 a.m.  But on this last day we were about 10 minutes late...why, you might ask?  Well sort of "a dog ate my homework" moment that no one would ever believe.

 

"Sorry we are late, Raquel, but an otter ran into our room!"

 

Yes, indeed, when we first arrived the manager had pointed out a Neotropical otter which roamed the grounds and we were warned to "keep your door shut or she will come in looking for food." Well we'd totally forgotten about that on our last morning and sure enough, the moment we opened the door, heading out to the boat after breakfast, she ran (slithered? darted?) in so fast we couldn't stop her! She ran right behind the mini-fridge (leaving a trail of mud) as I tried blocking her with our suitcase. While simultaneously laughing hysterically and trying to corral her towards the door. Thankfully she never made it onto the bed (all that mud!!) and we finally were able to shoo her outside! 

 

I imagine the cleaning staff are used to this as it was all tidied up when we returned   BTW, neotropical otters are not common to see in the Pantanal, in fact we'd not seen one before there; the Giant River otter is actually much more common. This particular otter is a rescue and lives on the grounds of the lodge. (She has a name too, but I've forgotten it.)

 

So, being 10 minutes late Raquel hurried us into the boat and we got off running start (literally gunning the motor) so I had a feeling that they already had heard of a jaguar sighting. Sure enough, we arrived upriver to find this lone female way up high on a bank.

 

 

This is the gorgeous jaguar that graced my opening, I'll post her again here. I have tried to ID her using the book but cannot find her; I've actually sent these pics to the Jaguar ID Project and if I get a response I'll let you know who she is.  [UPDATE: I heard back from the Jaguar ID project, this is Alira, a 2.5 year old cub of Ti.]

 

 

Eventually she started heading down the bank.

 

 

Stopping every now and then to look around...

 

 

Finally making her way to the river.

 

 

We spent quite awhile with her as she weaved her way in and out of the vegetation along the riverside. I love when they peek out from the greenery, and the variety of vegetation.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally she entered the water and swam across to the other side of the river, where we lost her in the forest.

 

Off to another great start to a day--otter invasion notwithstanding!

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by janzin

[AKR1]

Stunning Jaguar shots😃

[Atdahl]

Wow, what a great otter invasion!  

 

[madaboutcheetah]

Amazing 

[janzin]

After that encounter, there was one more jaguar to be had.  I will post this very unsatisfactory photo because this is a special jaguar: Ousado.  As you can see, he is collared (so easy to ID!) He is rather famous as the jaguar who was found with four burned paws after the fires of 2020; he was successfully rehabilitated and released.  We were happy to see him looking very fat and fit!

 

 

However, we only caught this brief glimpse of him as he went into the forest.

 

You can read more about him and see videos of his release here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/video-vets-hail-victory-as-jaguar-burned-in-pantanal-fires-returns-to-wild/

 

 

[jeremie]

14 minutes ago, janzin said:

After that encounter, there was one more jaguar to be had.  I will post this very unsatisfactory photo because this is a special jaguar: Ousado.  As you can see, he is collared (so easy to ID!) He is rather famous as the jaguar who was found with four burned paws after the fires of 2020; he was successfully rehabilitated and released.  We were happy to see him looking very fat and fit!

 

 

However, we only caught this brief glimpse of him as he went into the forest.

 

You can read more about him and see videos of his release here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/video-vets-hail-victory-as-jaguar-burned-in-pantanal-fires-returns-to-wild/

 

 

 

Quick, but nice sighting!

 

Did you go to Ponto Certo on the Piquiri river too? It seems that the hotspot were definitely in the Corixo Negro these last months, so most of the boats just go right there.

[janzin]

47 minutes ago, jeremie said:

 

Quick, but nice sighting!

 

Did you go to Ponto Certo on the Piquiri river too? It seems that the hotspot were definitely in the Corixo Negro these last months, so most of the boats just go right there.

 

We did go up the Piquiri one afternoon at the very end of the day, but honestly I'm not sure how far we got...we didn't see anything and it was getting towards "closing time" so we turned around. I don't think many boats were going up that way when we were there (although I do remember we passed Andre speeding in the other direction...so I don't think he saw anything either!)

[janzin]

I'll not hold you in suspense and will say that our final afternoon was jaguar-less. But we were quite satisfied with all we'd seen and the 1000's of jaguar photos we'd taken, so were content to just mosey along and see what birds or other wildlife we might find.

 

We found some new birds for our trip list, and some nice shots of one's we'd seen before or not stopped to photograph.

 

 

Saw several of these lovely Capped Herons a bit further up the main river...we'd sped by them other days but today we stopped!

 

 

 

A new bird for the trip, not a great photo as the light was harsh.

 

 

I know I posted a Black-collared Hawk before, but he's so handsome, and this one is swimming

 

 

Another newly photographed bird.

 

 

And I almost didn't bother shooting this Anhinga as we get them in the USA, but why not.

 

 

We also stopped for some Tufted Capuchin monkeys. I'm not a primate fan, but these are pretty cute.

 

 

 

We saw (and heard) Howler Monkeys too, but never got a photo.

 

It was fun to watch this juvenile Jabiru trying to fly.

 

 

He briefly got some lift...

 

 

But then gave up. Maybe he made it the next day.

 

 

These last were actually seen at the Hotel Pantanal Norte the next morning, but I'll stick them here.

 

I think I got almost the exact same photo on my prior trip!

 

 

 

And one last very cool mammal...just as we were heading back...we saw another boat looking at something in a tree...so we came closer to see what's what...

 

A Brazilian Porcupine! That's a life mammal.  Unfortunately he never lifted his head up...they are nocturnal after all.  But I thought it's worth posting such a cool critter.

 

Sigh, this was our last boat ride and we were to head back to the airport early the next morning.  I'll sum up in one last post.

 

 

 

[janzin]

A very quick summary--we had a great trip, even with all the hiccups. And the flies. And while we were really disappointed not to have Julinho as our guide, in the end he absolutely did the best he could given the circumstances, and I'm honestly not sure the trip would have been much different with him vs. Raquel (other than the first day on the boat, with no English but even that ended up being a spectacular day, so really can't complain. )

 

I'm ready to go back---there's always a better jaguar photo to be had...one mating, perhaps?

 

Leaving you with this peaceful river scene....

 

[lmSA84]

Thanks for such a lovely trip report and as usual your incredible photography! 

[Atdahl]

You know you have had a good trip when you are ready to go back right away.  You captured many stunning shots and things did work out in the end which is great.  The otter invasion was the icing on the cake.

 

Did you find that you saw many jaguars earlier in the morning (like 6:30 to 9AM)?  When we went with Julinho back in 2016 people weren't seeing jaguars early.  So, while we would stay out in the boat all day we didn't leave until 9AM.  We ended up seeing a lot of cats mid day when many of the boats would leave for lunch.  The late departures gave me time to photograph around the grounds of the hotel in nice light in the mornings which worked out really well at the time.  

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your awesome trip with us Janet.

 

Alan

 

 

[Zubbie15]

Thank you for sharing Janet, great photos as always and really made me look forward to my first visit in August! Have fun in India. 

[janzin]

1 hour ago, Atdahl said:

You know you have had a good trip when you are ready to go back right away.  You captured many stunning shots and things did work out in the end which is great.  The otter invasion was the icing on the cake.

 

Did you find that you saw many jaguars earlier in the morning (like 6:30 to 9AM)?  When we went with Julinho back in 2016 people weren't seeing jaguars early.  So, while we would stay out in the boat all day we didn't leave until 9AM.  We ended up seeing a lot of cats mid day when many of the boats would leave for lunch.  The late departures gave me time to photograph around the grounds of the hotel in nice light in the mornings which worked out really well at the time.  

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing your awesome trip with us Janet.

 

Alan

 

 

Thanks @AtdahlActually I'd say most of our sightings were early in the morning, especially of those cubs.  Looking at the time stamps of the photos a good majority were taken from 7 a.m-9:30 or so. We definitely would have missed a lot if we'd gone out at 9!  Although I am not sure that it was worth staying out all day, every day. We only saw a few cats in the midday hours and most of them were just sleeping...and it's also when the flies were at their worst!  Plus we got awfully tired of that same sandwich!  Next trip I think we'd only go out all day on some days, not every day.  I did miss photographing the birds around the lodge, such as the Hyacinth Macaws...they were vocal every morning but too dark to photograph at 6 a.m.

[janzin]

5 minutes ago, Zubbie15 said:

Thank you for sharing Janet, great photos as always and really made me look forward to my first visit in August! Have fun in India. 

 

1 hour ago, lmSA84 said:

Thanks for such a lovely trip report and as usual your incredible photography! 

Thanks @Zubbie15 and @lmSA84and everyone else who followed along and commented! I hope I've inspired everyone to go to the Pantanal (or to return again...and again...!)

[AKR1]

Thanks again Janet for this report, your erudite details and of course, as others have said, incredible photography. 
With your report and that of @Zubbie15 @madaboutcheetah @Atravelynn@michael-ibk, @Kitsafari ongoing trip reports, it’s currently an embarrassment of riches for the rest of us. 😀

Edited January 31, 2023 by AKR1
Typos

[Zim Girl]

Thoroughly enjoyed this trip report, with stunning photography as always!