rio negro

Top of the food chain

This is a dominant male jaguar, the top predator of the local food chain. Recently we spotted him very relaxed lying along the shores of the Rio Negro.
Within our research & conservation project "Onças do Rio Negro", we have identified 8 individuals. The goal of this study involves the understanding and monitoring of jaguar ecology, demography, population dynamics and it's relation with human activities such as cattle ranching and tourism in a long-term perspective.

Male Jaguar Pantanal Fazenda Barranco Alto

Two Jaguars

All together we've seen many dozens of these magnificent cats that reign the South-American jungles, but every time it's like the first time. Today it was two young jaguars (Panthera onca, onça-pintada). Totally relaxed they posed for 40 minutes on the banks of the Rio Negro, the Brazilian Pantanal's most pristine river, a river where you don't meet other boats and where speed is limited by the endless details of nature's beauty.