Sun-Ling adds: While about a couple thousands of jaguars live in the Pantanal, all the jaguar tourism is centered around Porto Jofre, in the Cuiaba River and its tributaries - there are 50 some jaguars that star in the enterprise. They may be habituated, if jaguars can ever be. Nevertheless, seeing jaguars is very exciting business. We were super excited to see our first jaguar on the road to Porto Jofre. It turned out to be a very fortuitous occasion. The jaguar is not one of the usual suspects. It was the first reported sighting for that jaguar. In fact our guide Dani got to name the jaguar and have her added to the next edition of the Jaguar Field Guide. Of course, individual Jaguars are identified by the pattern between the eyes and the top of the nose.
And we're off (first below). The lodge next to ours had a dock made from old tires (2nd below). See the video (3rd) from our guide Dani (@ddanirc) of our boat speeding upriver. Woohoo!
A group of boats filled with camera-toting tourists means "wildlife spotted". In this case, a group of giant river otters who are fishing together.
And minutes later we came across the first jaguar of the day, hanging out in a tree, not oblivious to the people in the boats, just not caring.
Ringed Kingfisher (1st below) and Amazon Kingfisher (2nd).
Jabiru Stork, Nest and Chicks. Check out the enormous crop of the "fishing" Jabiru in the video first below.
Jaguar #2; not so many boats at this spot.
More Giant Otters spotted.
Is there a more beautiful bird than the Rufous-tailed Jacamar?
The tiny white-winged swallow shimmering in the sunlight. Thanks @ddanirc for the photo!
In one of the narrower channels of the river (1st below), we pulled right alongside a Wattled Jacana (2nd below) and watched it walk on top of the water plants.
The elusive jaguar #3, reported to be nursing one of her 2 cubs, was hard to spot in the bushes
Mid-afternoon, the caimans came out to sun themselves with mouths open, ready to swallow prey.
More giant otters. These two were more interested in napping than in us.More video of the napping giant otters.
The giant otters in the short video below were NOT resting.
Our guide Dani spotted a jaguar #4 walking in the water. No other boats were around. Nice. We watched this jaguar swim a bit, then come out of the water to the bank, and climb onto some tree roots to rest.
On another small tributary we watched a Capybara Family Outing along the river (video third below).
More relaxing cruising.
Full speed ahead back to the lodge at sunset.
My Birthday Cake - Thanks Dani!
On the way back to Cuiaba we saw a Yellow Anaconda crossing the road, and followed it into the bushes. Not to mention a stray water buffalo, local cowboys, and a beautiful big sky.
1 comment:
Wow! It’s going to be hard to top this tour and birthday gift. I can’t believe how many elusive jaguars you saw in one day effortlessly. How do they get the cats appear along the river banks?
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