PANTANAL – BRAZIL
This was my ninth year coming to the diverse Pantanal region of Brazil for my Jaguars of the Pantanal Photo Tour. Rarely do you see a destination get better over time, but that is certainly the case here. The wildlife and ability to photograph it have continued to improve over the years as animals become more habituated to tourists and photographers.
We have three generations of Jaguars along these rivers now whom have grown up with boats following and watching them…they just don’t care! I continue to find the majority of guides and boat drivers to be very respectful with regard to approach distance and mitigating disturbance while observing these cats. This last part is extremely important as it is the total experience and not just getting a good Jaguar image which is the most important thing for me!
So nuts and bolts…20 different Jaguars and 45 sighting of Jaguars during 7 days on the river! Those numbers are staggering! This was by far the most productive year we’ve had for Jaguars. The majority of our sighting were also cats doing cool things like walking along the river, swimming, hunting, mating, and climbing trees! We had five different pairs of breeding Jags this year which makes me think of my Aug. 2018 trip which will likely provide several females with cubs along the river!
Many times during this year’s trip we left one Jag sighting to go see another Jag 5 or 10 minutes down the river. At one point we had a Jag on the river bank stalking Capybara and directly across the river was another Jag! “Which Jag do you want to watch” was a discussion I needed to have with my driver and clients! That’s a great decision to be stuck with.
Beyond the great Jaguar viewing, we had our usual wonderful and diverse Pantanal fauna to experience and photograph including: Hyacinth Macaws, Giant River Otters, Caiman, Kingfishers, Storks, Herons, Hawks, Egrets, Tapir, Ocelot, and more birds.