The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-four

 Dragon Slayers

 

Traveling—it leaves you speechless,

Then turns you into a story-teller.

—Ibn Battuta

 

 

 

The alarm on the iPhone under my pillow tells me it’s time to get up.   I don’t want to.   I had a restless night.   My throat feels scratchy and my eyes seem to be looking through binoculars from the wrong end.

 

I want to stay in bed, but I tell myself that this might be my last international trip and I better take advantage of it.  So, I’m out of bed and eventually on my way to the boat dock.

 

Earlier than ever before, we find a jaguar prowling the river banks in search of a caiman.  I think it’s Marcela, but when I look closely at the photos, I can’t see the little notch in her ear.   So, I don’t know for sure.   It might be a completely new-to-us jaguar.

 

 

We watch the jaguar hunt for a while.  She swims through the water hyacinth and climbs over brush on the bank.

 

 

She crosses the river.

As you can see, the boat with the film crew is front and center.   Always.

The jaguar can be seen immediately in front of the film crew boat.

 

In this photo, you can see how width a berth the boat drivers give a swimming jaguar.   Except the film crew, which apparently has permission to get closer.

 

 

 

 

We move away to a new jaguar—Patricia.   Patricia moves her two cubs to a shaded spot on the bank and they lie down to relax.    Patricia is the mother of Medrosa and the grandmother of Marcela.  

Jaguar and cub.  This might be Medrosa or her mother Patricia.

 

We are busy snapping photos when a half hour later, we get word that Marcela has caught a caiman!   Back we go to watch her catch her breath.

Marcela is right in the middle of the photo.   See how well-camouflaged she is?   Also see how we sometimes have to work around passengers in other boats for clear shots?

 

She looks to choose her route up the steep river bank and grabs the reptile by the head.   The boat drivers were pretty sure she would catch one today as she hadn’t eaten in two days.

She looks up at the top of the river bank, perhaps checking for intruders or how difficult her climb will be.

She choses a brushy area to make her climb with the caiman in her mouth,

And away she goes.   I assume the rest of the caiman is under Marcela's body.

 

Up she goes and into the forest.

 

Back in the river, another new-to-us jaguar has  just crossed the river with her two cubs and are making their way to some trees where they stop to relax.  This jaguar mom is Ibaca.

A cub looking back.

 

In the brush.

The two cubs of Ibaca.

Ibaca

Ibaca at right, the two cubs at left.   The dark spot is the second cub.

 

Back at the hotel for lunch, Shelly catches a family of capybara near the dining hall and takes this video:

 

It might as well be a still shot because they don't move!

Now, time for a rest break before our 3 PM boat ride.

The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Day of the Jaguars

 

 

“Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.”

—Ghaniya Dewy Arassyi

 

 

Once again, we leave the dock at 5:30 in the morning as the sun begins to rise and bathes the scene with golden light.   Soon we are abreast of the jabiru nest, but none of the birds want to pose for us.

 

A male jaguar has been spotted so off we go on a “Ferrari boat ride” only to spot just the tip of its tail as it disappears into the tall vegetation.  No pix.  

 

As long as we’re in the lagoon, we take a look around and spot two Tiger heron nestlings.   They are big enough to fledge and certainly that nest is crowded if they both lie down.

 

 

Back on the main river, our old faithful Marcella makes her appearance.  The boat drivers let other drivers know when they’ve spotted a jaguar.   It does increase traffic to the sighting, but then everyone gets to see a cat.   

Once again Marcelle obligingly swims the river.

This happens in Africa, too, when a guide finds a lion, leopard, or cheetah.  He lets other drivers from his camp know so they can bring their guests there.

 

Occasionally, photographers ask for a couple minutes before the guide texts the spotting.   Sometimes it’s granted and sometimes not. It works both ways, so usually they let the other guides know in a reasonable time.

 

Marcella swims along the river in her search for a caiman.   We leave her to explore other tributaries and find some capped herons.   All but one fly away and that’s enough for me!

 

We get some good poses and shots of this unique bird.

 

Then we race to another lagoon where two juvenile male jaguars were seen.   This time we find them sleeping in dense vegetation right along the bank.

 

 

The second jaguar is in the vegetation over the rump of this one in front.

During late morning, a jaguar named Ti appears in the dense vegetation and climbs down the bank to hunt.    This is Marcella’s grandmother.

 

After about 45 minutes of following Ti, I catch her leaping for a caiman but the reptile escapes.   It happens that quickly.   One second they’re hunting and the next they’re leaping.

THE LEAP!

 

So far today, we have seen five jaguars.   What will this afternoon bring?

It’s time to head back to the hotel and a break from the hot sun.   I look at a small thermometer I have attached to my photo bag and it reads in the mid-to-high 100-and-teens!   

A pair of Southern Screamers

 

Can’t be, I think, though I do think it’s the hottest day yet and I am wiped out by the time we get back.    I leave my photo bag with its little thermometer  outside on a chair in the shade, sans cameras, of course.

I check the temperature after a while.    It still reads over 110.   I bring it in and check it against the air-conditioned room.   It still agrees with that temperature.

 

 

 

The 2023 Brazil Journals, Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Marcela

 

“Jaguars possess an air of mystique,

 as if they hold the secrets of the jungle in their souls.”—Unknown

 

 

 

 

Vanderlay backs the boat out of its slip at 5:20 in the morning.  

We start the photo day with an anaconda that lives among the rocks at the base of a cliff along the river.

There's the body;  where are the ends?

More body!

Even more body!

There you are!

 

Head to tail.

 

By 6 A.M we are upriver and photographing Marcela, the two-year old female jaguar that we saw yesterday.

 

By 8A.M., I have more than 600 photos of Marcela!

Later, Octavio is smiling and shaking his head in that gesture universally recognized as bemusement.

“I have many guests who come here hoping to see a jaguar swim across the river and they never do," he says.   "This morning, in just a couple hours, we have seen Marcela cross three times!”

First crossing.

 

Second crossing

Third crossing

Let’s talk about jaguars.

 

They rank third in size among the larger wild cats in the world, with tigers first.  Second are lions, (then jaguars), leopards, pumas, and cheetahs.

 

Jaguars look a lot like leopards.   Each has a necklace of spots, one of the things that can identify individuals.

 

They can grow up to nine feet long, including their tails, and weigh up to 350 lbs., whereas leopards, even though they can reach the same length, only weigh up to 165 lbs.

A leopard can carry a prey animal that is three times its own body weight up a tree, whereas a jaguar has a lifting strength of 700 lbs., and can drag a large caiman up a steep river bank.

 

Jaguars are stockier, bulkier than leopards.   They also have no fear of water and, in fact, spend much of their days in the water hunting for caimans.   Leopards prefer to hunt on the land for antelope and other land game, which they carry up a tree to keep it safe from other animals that would steal it.

 

Jaguars aren’t afraid of any other animal, except other jaguars.

We aren't the only people with Marcela.   Watch the video below:

 

We watch Marcela hunt for three hours, catching her in and out of the water, watching from the high river banks, swimming through rafts of floating water hyacinth where the caimans like to linger on the surface.

 

Marcela swims across the river three times.   She has only to check the area and look across the river, and the boat drivers instantly give her a wide berth.   They back their boats away from her intended crossing and don’t move until she is on the other side.   Some boats are upriver and some are downriver  and they leave about 100 yards in between for the jaguar.

Marcela pauses for a drink.

 

After a while, Marcela disappears out of sight in gteh vegetation, so we visit a beautiful lagoon.   Floating water hyacinth line both sides of the narrow water passage and birds galore are in the trees.

This video shows how the floating water hyacinth moves up and down with the boat's bow wave.   I think Shelly took this video.

 

A Black Hawk.

Our first sighting of a giant river otter.

Giant river otter with fish.

Black-capped Donacobius

Then, we are back with Marcela, still hunting intently for caimans.   I add another 230 shots to Marcela’s album.

 

It’s hotter than blazes as we head back to Porto Jofre for lunch and a very welcome  afternoon break from the sun.

 

 

***

Because of the intense heat, we don't go back on the river until 3 P.M.   We encounter no jaguars.   No doubt they are hiding from the sun, too.

Instead, Vanderlay takes us into another lagoon and I am thrilled with all the birds, especially in the late afternoon golden light.

Anhinga

Anhinga with its wings out to dry.

Anhinga

Caiman swimming close.

Cormorant.

Black Hawk

Tiger heron

Tiger heron

Wattled jacana

Wattled jacana

Kiskadee

Kiskadee

Giant river otter

Orange-backed troupial

Cream-colored woodpecker

The homeward bound sunset.