Old fences

Many people ask us why we leave old fences standing around. The old fence posts in this picture appeared to our eyes for the first time last year, during the very long and dry season that we had. They are standing in a saline lake (salina) and if we could ask them I am sure that they would have many stories to tell. Right now they are being used daily by birds (in this case by large-billed terns (Phaetusa simplex, trinta-reis-grande)) as roosting and resting opportunity. So from our point of view old posts open a new micro-habitat that soon will be colonized by many different creatures, from fungi to insects, birds and others !


About Giant Otters in the rio Negro

In 1992 Jorge Schweizer published his pioneer work about giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis, Ariranha) ecology. His studies were all done around one of the few places you would find giant otters in the 80´s: the Rio Negro in the southern Pantanal of Brazil.
Still into these days the Rio Negro is the most pristine of all rivers in the Pantanal. It is an isolated river with no commercial fishery and access from other rivers, with most of it´s gallery forest well conserved.
Here giant otters thrive, feeding on adundant fishes like these catfishes. They live in families with up to 12 members and are very active and noisy animals.
Surely, the giant otters are emblematic of the Pantanal´s wildlife abundance!



Star gazing

One of our favorite sightings are the stars at night with no moon. Because we are in such a remote place we can see the faintest stars, distant galaxies like the Large Magellanic Cloud (160´000 light years away) and even the mysterious Zodiacal lights.
In this picture you see carandá palm trees (Copernicia alba) in the foreground and a short stretch of the milky way.
If you go left from the top palm crown you will find the southern cross (Crux), a constellation we use to know where south is. Right below the southern cross is a dark nebula called the Coalsack, lying 600 light-years away from us. It is formed by interstellar dust grains and thus blocks the light of stars behind it. These nebulas can be "birthplaces" of new stars.

Yellow-chevroned Parakeets

April is the month when the mandacaru cactus (Cereus peruvianus) frutifies. It´s fruits are red with a delicious white flesh. Many animals love them but most of all the parakeets. The cactus become hotspots for birdwatchers and any other nature interested person ... 
These are a yellow-chevroned parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri, periquito-de-encontro-amarelo) and a monk parakeet (Myopsitta monachus, caturrita) in the background.


And why are they called "yellow-chevroned parakeets" ? Here is the answer:

Osprey



This is the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), a diurnal raptor, migrating dwon to the Pantanal from the USA, where they nest. 
Ospreys are found on every continent but Antarctica, but in most places they are threatened by habitat loss and aquatic polution. 
They are always found close to bigger water bodies fishing from the air, dropping out of the sky they can dive more than a meter into the water to catch the fish. 
Ospreys are the only raptors together with owls where the outer toe is reversible, allowing them to grasp their prey with two toes in front and two behind. 
In my oppinion, on of the most elegant birds we find here !


Barbie's cub

Many people have asked us over the last few months what happened to Barbie and her cub.  As I say: I don't like to post too many cat pictures because cats are very hard to see and it creates high expectations about possible sightings...
Anyway, here is an update:
F (the cub) is most probably a female, she's almost her mother's size but of a lighter appearance, less muscles. F has very big rosettes like her mother.
This picture was taken by Adrian Testa, a Smithsonian Institute's (Washington-DC) photographer, from about 20 meters at night as the cats were coming out of the reeds. We were in absolute silence and watched them for a couple of minutes. The picture was taken at ISO 5000, therefor the high background noise. A magic moment even for those who have seen inumerous jaguars over the years.

After all the water is back !

The Pantanal is a land of extremes, if you saw it in October 2009, you'd say you are close to a desert, humidity of 15%, brown/yellow grass, temperatures over 30Celsius and most ponds dried out ... and after a few months, hundreds of millimeters of rain later, everything is under water !
And that's exactely what makes the Pantanal special and so rich. The up and down of the water creates more ecological niches than a steady system would offer, the flood renews the land, brings in new nutrients and fishes into lakes that were dry ...
It's a time full of new adventures and experiences, a time when we see less wildlife but the beauty of the beauty of the omnipresent water the sheer endless variety of green tones more than compensate for that ...


John Alcock and the Foliage-gleaner

Most biologists from all over the world know John Alcock's book "Animal Behavior". It's a must for people interested in an evolutionary approach towards animal AND human behavior. It's simply a masterpiece.
How pleased we were with John and Sue Alcock's visit to Barranco Alto ! For several days we enjoyed their  nice company and profited from John's amazingly broad knowledge !

From right to left: John, Sue, Jorge and Marina
As an avid birdwatcher, John Alcock was very enthusiastic to find a new bird species for the Barranco Alto Birdlist: the Chestnut-capped Foliage-gleaner (Hylocryptus rectirostris, Fura-barreira). It's a member of the ovenbirds and nests in the riverbanks of the Rio Negro.

First photo of a maned Wolf !!!

We have now the first documented record of a maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus, Lobo-guará)! The picture was taken by a trail camera also known as camera trap at this position.

The maned wolf is a member of the canidae family, thus related to dogs, wolves and foxes. They are about 100 cm tall at their shoulders and weight something around 25 kg.

They are very rare, to compare: we have had about 61 jaguar sightings in the last 6 years and about 2 maned-wolf sightings, which can't be proven ...

This picture is horrible but it leaves no doubt about the fact. If you'd like to see a good picture, follow this link and here is a part of a BBC documentary we worked on 10 years ago.

Coscoroba Swan

The Coscoroba (Coscoroba coscoroba) is not considered a true swan, it's philogenetic position is not fully defined. It has characteristics of geese and swans.
Nevertheless, it's a very attractive bird that uses our salinas (brakish ponds) as wading grounds. The name derives from their typical call (listen here).
Coscorobas breed from Tierra del Fuego to central Argentina and migrate north up to the Southern Pantanal, where they are rarely seen like this group (11/11/2009) ...

Marsh deer in natural habitat

The marsh-deer (Blastocerus dichotomus, cervo-do-pantanal) is the largest of our deers. They prefer marshy ground with standing water and dense vegetation, for this, they have large feet with an elastic membrane between the hooves.
They are solitary and their natural enemies are jaguars and pumas.

In this photo you see a typical male in his natural habitat.


Nursing caracara


These days we watched a capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), that had apparently suffered an attack by a puma (Puma concolor), being "nursed" by a yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima).
In Portuguese we call this bird the carrapateiro, thus the one that eats ticks. They are well known for their symbiosis with herbivores like capybaras, cattle etc.
In this case it was picking maggots out of the capibaras wound.
Phantastic !

 
 
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