We went for our last morning boat ride in Porto Jofre this morning, hoping for a glimpse of a jaguar or the otters. We explored some new sections of the river and saw a new bird, but the mammals weren't cooperating. Then we turned into another stream to look at a heron with a fish in its beak, and the amazing Gonsalo (our boat pilot) spotted a jaguar peeking up over the lake weed. It was the mother of the older cubs we had seen two days before. We watched her walk to the river, swim across to the other side, and then for more than half a mile we moved in parallel with her as she walked along the river bank. For several days we had benefitted from other boats calling in jaguar sightings, so we called ours in too. This meant that we had about 15 minutes of private jaguar viewing and then about 10 minutes with increasing numbers of other boats. The jaguar disappeared into the brush at that point. What an amazing experience! We also saw a family of seven howler monkeys just to top off the morning.
We flew (about 1 hour 10 minutes, instead of all day driving) to our third camp in the Caiman Reserve, where the program to recover Hyacinth Macaw populations began in 1990. At that point there were thought to be only 1500 birds in the wild; the most recent survey suggests over 6000, and they are now listed as vulnerable but not endangered. Our having seen them at every stop on this trip supports the idea of their recovery.
Out new location is dry savanna, in a largely cattle ranching area. We started out on an afternoon safari ride, about an hour before sunset. By the time sunset arrived, we had already seen a tapir, a 9-banded armadillo, new birds and a giant anteater! The anteater allowed us to watch him bathe in a marshy spot to get ants out of his fur. After the sun set and the moon rose, we continued on a night drive. We saw (at different times) four crab-eating foxes, three more giant anteaters and another tapir. We can't wait to see what a full day will bring tomorrow!
Pictured: jaguar, blue-fronted parrot, Paraguayan howlers, giant anteater, young Brazilian tapir.
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