Tags
black-collared hawk, caiman, capybara, cocoi heron, giant river otter, iguana, Jabiru, jaguar, Pantanal, ringed kingfisher, Transpantaneira, water hyacinth
An even earlier start this morning, Friday 25th September, as we were due to move about halfway back up the Transpantaneira to our third and final accommodation, for three nights. So we had a final boat trip out to say goodbye to (representatives) of our river friends of the last few days.
No jaguars this morning, so here’s Dave Allen’s reminder of our first encounter with Peter and Bianca on our first day in this area, as we gently moved off.
We didn’t stop much on the road, as we were rather short of time,
but absolutely had to take photos of the weeniest capybara ever, just six inches long.
In due course we arrived at our last lodge, run by the same company that ran the flotel.
The iced drink awaiting us on the veranda was so welcome, and we were soon whisked in for lunch.
After a siesta we went out for another … boat ride, in two smaller boats this time. I for one hadn’t even realised that we were to be based on rivers for this last part of our trip. There were many fewer other tourist boats. This one contains half of our party, plus naturalist and boatman.
We were not expecting to see jaguars during these last few days either. We believed we were heading out to see a family of giant river otters. And so we were. But we were delayed – by two jaguars! As we arrived, there they were, in Fiorella’s word, ‘copulating’! I just saw the end, as they rolled apart. We stayed there for quite a while,
so were quite late for otter bedtime. This little one definitely did not want to go to bed,
and needed much persuasion from adults to do so.
So that was that. Bedtime for all, we thought. Then this happened:An adult came swimming directly to us, such that I found myself, when it was about 5 feet away from me, adopting my standard very singsong ‘talk to the pets’ voice, saying ‘Hello …’ Then we realised what was going on, as another otter joined in. These were habituated to humans, and took fish thrown into the water by the boatmen.
I wish I’d know this was going to happen, I would have been better prepared to take pictures.
It was fun to see, but nevertheless some of us were left a little with the feeling that this was feeding time at the zoo, not natural, not what we’d travelled thousands of miles to see. The otters weren’t complaining though.
Tereza is VERY beautiful – and hats off to the otters – if they can’t charge the humanoids for providing viewing opportunities they might as well get a free meal out of it.
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Hopefully there will be a few little Terezas in a few weeks’ time…
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Maybe, but I’ve read a study on Pantanal jaguars which concluded they seem to be mating more often than is necessary for reproduction. The researchers observed females with cubs mating…and oddly enough the males didn’t kill the cubs. The scientists’ conclusions were that either female jaguars in the Pantanal engage in this behavior to make all the males think they’re the cubs’ fathers, or that jaguars are more social than we think. The study also mentioned groups of males hanging out together, so maybe the abundance of prey and females means Pantanal jags don’t have to be so territorial.
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Good on them! The jaguars I mean particularly.
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I’m not too thrilled about feeding the otters. When people start feeding wild animals it can have unforseen consequences. For example, in 2008 a man was killed by a jaguar in Brazil while sleeping. This was the first confirmed, unprovoked attack on a human by a jaguar. After an investigation, researchers supposed that the practice of baiting the cats for photos had altered this individuals’ behavior. I’ve heard giant river otters can be aggressive, so I don’t think it’s safe to teach them that people = food.
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You’ll not be surprised that I tend to agree. This particular lodge, being nearer to the nearest town, probably feels a greater need to entertain the tourists who only come for a day or two.
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What an adventure you are having, thanks for letting us in on it.
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Thank you for coming with me on it.
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A tricky decision for the locals to make when they know what tourists like to see.
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I tend to agree with you as well.
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Great that you had another chance to see jaguars. That look straight to camera is almost ‘speaking’.
Loved the baby capybara.
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Sends (warm!) shivers down my spine.
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Captivant, le regard de Tereza, mais ma photo préférée (de ce jour-là !) est sans doute la suivante, toute en relaxation confiante. Quant aux bébés capybara et loutre, je craque !
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Oui, il y a quelque chose de reposant.
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