Day 8 of the Pantanal of Brazil

My very first ever Jaguar sighting was a family of three on Day 7. An amazing and rare event even for veteran Jaguar observers.  Our first sighting on this Day 8 was perhaps just as special, although we did not get as clear a look. Like the previous day, we would photograph 6 different Jaguars this day including one I feared would soon die, and one that did.

As I did previously, I start with a photo of a Toucan taken just outside of my room in the lodge shortly after our 6 am breakfast.  This photo was taken handheld at 1/15 sec. with a 560 mm (eq.) lens.

We were down at the boat launch in Porto Jofre just as the sun was rising. 

And then we are off for our day’s adventure.

Below are two photos Juraj took from the front of our boat.  I am in the blue and yellow jacket on the port side of the boat taking a photo with my iPhone and waving.  That is Juraj’s head in the bottom left of the photos.

Below is the photo of Juraj that I took of him taking the photos of me. 

You can see in those previous photos how folks were bundled up against the morning cold. Me less so.

We came upon a group of Azura’s Capuchin monkeys.

We spotted a pair of Giant Otters. 

A Southern Crested Carcara flew by.

I found the foliage along the shore interesting and unusual.

For almost two hours after we left the dock, not much happened. I photographed an anhinga and a Black-collared Hawk.

Finally, a jaguar jam!  We attempted to work our way into a decent position among all of the other boats.

Far up on shore were a mother and baby jaguar.  

Unfortunately, the mother and cub never gave us really clear shots.

The mother began walking and the cub followed.

I really liked the way the cub peeked at us from behind the mother.

Then the mother turned around and headed back into the brush.

   

Here is the pair lying in the brush with the mother licking the cub and the cub licking back.

   

The mother had a paw in the air as she groomed herself.  The cub thought it was a toy and took some swings at it.

Here are a few more photos I took of the mother and the cub.

We took a few more photos and departed around 11 am.  The first is the cub.  The next two are the mother.

We had pulled onto shore for these photos, so at least we were not drifting like we were most of the other times photographing jaguars.

I  took only a few photos over the next 90 minutes.

 

 

 

After lunch, we headed up a small side stream and got a quick look at our third Jaguar of the day.

I photographed a juvenile Tiger Heron. 

Soon we spotted our fourth Jaguar, resting comfortably on a throne-like bank along the shore. 

Here is a photo of me photographing that Jaguar. It is on the bank, ahead and just a little left of me.

We stayed with this Jaguar for about 30 minutes.

Until it got up and walked away.

Heading back toward the main river, I got a photo of a Black-capped Donacobius.

At 1:45 pm, we spotted a Jaguar.  After only seeing the mother and cub all morning, they seemed to be coming fast and furious now.  We thought it was the fifth Jaguar of the day.  But in fact, based on its distinctive spot pattern, it now appears that it was the same Jaguar we had been photographing half an hour previously. It had apparently looped around through the woods and come down to another part of the river network.

This Jaguar was clearly comfortable in the water. In fact, it even swam across the river and then climbed on a small island with an old stump embedded. Here are a dozen photos.

 

We were not going to find another Jaguar for the next two hours. But meanwhile, I got another number of photos of some very interesting birds, including some parakeets, a Southern Screamer, a Striated Heron, a wren, and a really interesting Boat-billed Heron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this burnt-out tree fascinating, and photographed it two different days.

Somewhat after 4:15 pm, we spotted our fifth Jaguar of the day. I was very sad to see through my viewfinder that it had an injured mouth.  I was felt devastated when I saw the photo below on my monitor at home.

I sent the photo to the Jaguar ID Project expressing my concern about this jaguar’s ability to survive.  The next day I received a reply from Abbie Martin, the Director: 

“Thank you for sharing the photo and for your concern about the jaguar. I wanted to let you know that she is doing well. The injury is actually an old one from 2020, though there are some fresh wounds around it. Since that injury, she has not only recovered but has also successfully raised two litters of cubs! Her name is Overa she’s one of our stars!”

Of course, I didn’t know until I received this great news that Overa is apparently thriving. So I was again sad when I saw her make a failed attempt to grab a Caiman. Below are a series of photos of this attempt.

I took relatively few photos over the next 50 minutes.

 

  

 

 

 

After the sun set, we found a very regal Jaguar, our sixth of the day, sitting up on a bank. Here is a photo I took with my iPhone. 

Referring to the first photo on my main Pantanal page, reproduced immediately below, Abbie of the Jaguar ID Project wrote:

“The jaguar on the first page caught my eye, and I’m saddened to confirm that it is Kwang. We found him deceased in September. We were able to collect his body and perform an autopsy, which revealed that he had died from chronic pneumonia and kidney disease. It was quite a shocking discovery.”

And here are two more photos of Kwang.

As the sky turned red, we raced back for the next 20 minutes.

Here is the dock at 6 pm.  The second of three amazing 11 plus hours on a boat.