Predators can be prey themselves ...

When caimans are still small lizards they are prey for bigger raptors like the black-collared hawk (Busarellus nigricollis, gavião-belo).

This region of the Pantanal (Rio Negro) is one of the richest in parrot abundance. Flocks of these birds are everywhere and the gregarious macaws catch everyone´s attention. In this picture we see a mixed flock of red-and-green and hyacinth macaws that are together feeding on the dry acuri nuts (Attalea phalerata) found in ungulate´s droppings. Altogether there were 24 birds...

Toucans in their nests agree

After you´ve read the last post about Haley´s adventures in the Pantanal you might wonder how a toco toucan looks in reality... well, it´s even more colorful than any comic can be !

In this photo the toucan is not predating on another bird´s nest, but guarding its own nest. 

In the 1940´s an advertisement from irish Guiness beer ran with the following jingle: "Toucans in their nests agree/Guinness is good for you/Try some today and see/What one or toucan do." See a more recent Guiness toucan TV ad here: http://youtu.be/QXzIMP_wxQ0?hd=1

Haley´s Adventures

http://www.craigmorecreations.com

Take a look at this very interesting and beautiful comic from Craigmore Creations. It´s about Haley Zoic´s travels, a natural history corespondent, as she explores the lives and struggles of endangered species. In this episode, she visited Fazenda Barranco Alto and learned a lot about the hyacinth macaws, the trees they nest in and the toco toucan. Click on the image to read the comic it´s really worth !

This is a very interesting time of the year, when the water level of the Negro river is at its lowest. Recently we watched a school of tetra fish (Astyanax sp., lambari) trapped by a big group of caimans at the confluence of a bay with the river. Caimans were all around the shallowest bits of water and the fish would perform aerobatic jumps to escape the predators ... 

Black is beautiful !

This short video shows a skimmer parent incubating its eggs on a sandbank surrounded by the Rio Negro waters ...

Sunbirds !

We´d like to share with you two very shy birds we sighted these days on the Rio Negro: the sunbittern (Eurypyga helias, pavãozinho-do-pará) and the sungrebe (Heliornis fulica, picaparra). Despite their names, both are not closer related but they share the same colors and a remarkable and exquisite beauty...

Sunbittern displaying its amazing wing-pattern.

A female sungrebe hiding under branches.

Nosey bat

The proboscis bat (Rhynchonycteris naso) has this name from the elongated nose, which somehow looks in shape like a tapir´s nose... They are nocturnal insect feeders and are always associated with water. Therefor they are more commonly found along the river, where you can see them under tree trunks. We have observed river otters predating on them.

Note the long and pointy nose!

The Swamp Hen

The american purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinica, frango-d'água-azul) is a common bird of the rail family in our marshes. It´s rather skittish, thus not very easy to approach close enough for a good picture.

They are omnivorous and walk over floating vegetation as if they were on firm ground. No surprise if you look at their huge yellow feet !

Note all the purple-blue tonalities of their plumage...

Pecking Order

The ringed kingfishers  (Megaceryle torquata, martim-pescador-grande) are outstanding in their ability to fish. From a suitable perch they wait patiently until prey swims by. This female was lucky enough to hunt a knifefish (Gymnotus sp., tuvira) probably about half her body weight !

But a few seconds later an attentive roadside hawk (Buteo magnirostris, gavião-carijó), that was watching everything with even more patience, hit the kingfisher in flight and caught the prey from the fisher: pecking order ...

King of the Bush

As always we would like to remember that seeing a cat is a rare moment and should not be expected ... 

This young male and an associated female were seen literally just around the corner in Fazenda Barranco Alto´s "RPPN das Onças" (a private reserve). It´s a young male in stunning shape. The mysteriously dark background is typical of the Rio Negro, one of the Pantanal´s most pristine rivers.

Young male jaguar.

Caiman vs. Capybara

Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, capivara) are heavily predated by jaguars, pumas, ocelots, foxes, anacondas and caimans. Therefore they reproduce in a rodent-like manner. Here you see a 2 meter caiman (Caiman yacare, jacaré) after it killed a year-old capybara ... It's nature's circle of life.

Another praise to the Giant Otters

This is one of our favorite posts of the recent past and since these creatures irresistibly draw our attention and interest every single day, we'd simply like to repeat the post of last year:


The giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis, Ariranha) are amongst the most fascinating animals of the Pantanal. They form family groups of up to 12 individuals with a dominant male and female which stay together lifelong. They show a wide variety of behavior patterns according to their very cooperative and social existence. Research being conducted here in the Rio Negro by Leuchtenberger et al. suggests that giant otters use up to a dozen different vocalizations!

Over the last two months on Fazenda Barranco Alto we have been able to observe the family of "Perereca" doing their best to raise 3 babies. Spending many hours daily watching them we have been lucky to see the most beautiful scenes such as teaching the newborn to swim and fish, grooming and resting together.

Mother giant otter bringing one baby at a time down to the water.

All giant otters come to groom the little one ...

After parental caring comes feeding!

Ending up with a well-deserved siesta !

Howling family

The black howler monkeys are the only resident monkeys in this area of the Pantanal. O occasionally Capuchin monkeys may roam this far (see the 2007 post).

These large monkeys are seen mostly either resting or eating leaves in the high canopy. Their presence is often given away by their very loud vocalization (click to hear !)

Dominant male.

Female with baby on the back.

A golden beauty

The Pantanal is not well-known for its hummingbirds ... but the gilded hummingbird (Hylocharis chrysura, beija-flor dourado) is an easy to find beauty that draws everyone´s attention. On this photo it´s feeding on the pink trumpet-vine (Cuspidaria sp., cipó roxo).

Tiger heron

If you go around and watch carefully, you´ll notice that many species of birds fish. Each one has a different technique. The rufescent tiger-heron (Tigrisoma lineatum, socó-boi) has a standing-still way of fishing. Sometimes they wait for several dozens of minutes without any apparent movement until a suitable fish is in reach and then they precisely and deadly spear it.

Because of their mooing calls, we call them socó-boi (cow-heron) in Portuguese. 

A successful early morning hunt ...

Little

These handsome birds are the pied lapwings (Vanellus cayanus, mexeriqueira). They are quite common along the river banks of the rio Negro, where they hunt invertebrates, rarely entering the water.

And just another new sighting !

The pantanal cat (Leopardus braccatus, gato-palheiro) is probably by far the most elusive cat that inhabits this region. Nobody has ever seen it around here and now Lydia`s (the german giant anteater researcher that works here) camera traps finally got the most sought-after picture: the misterious Pantanal cat !

Here are two pictures pasted together, the left leaves no doubt about the ID and the right one shows you the size of it. It´s been caught 5 times by a camera-trap on this location: http://goo.gl/maps/uatF

Our chickens are all gone again !

A few weeks ago we still had about 24 chicken living free in the backyard. Happily they would lay an egg per day. But during one windy night a few tiles were blown off the chicken house and readily an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis, jaguatirica) saw it´s chance. It jumped into the chicken barn and killed all but ONE chicken. We heard them screaming but when we arrived it was to late, the ocelot had let it´s instinct gone wild and was already resting it´s full stomach, an excellent opportunity to get the camera ready.

Well, this wasn´t the first time, last time it was an armadillo that dug a tunnel into the chicken barn.

Anyways, we will have to buy more chicks and repopulate the barn !

An ocelot´s siesta is at mid-night !

A golden necklace

This wonderful bird is a golden-collared macaw (Primolius auricollis, ararinha-de-colar), one of our smallest macaws. They live in little flocks around woodland and savanna and are common.

An intriguingly different armadillo ...

One of our many camera traps got another first documented sighting for Fazenda Barranco Alto: a giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus, tatu-canastra). This is by far the biggest armadillo weighing up to 28 Kg. They are strictly nocturnal and spend most of their time underground searching for termites. Armadillos play a very important role in local ecology due to their insect diet.

Welcome giant !

Forest ground runners

The ameiva lizard (Ameiva ameiva, calango-verde), is a common reptile around here. Mostly you hear them searching for food (they´re omnivorous) between the leaf litter before you can see them.

Their predators are snakes, tegu lizards and some hawks.

Although they look very bright their camouflage is notable. Click on the picture, close your eyes a bit and see how you loose it between the leaves ...

And more sightings !

This week two new bird species for Fazenda Barranco Alto´s list were sighted by Cassiano Zaparoli (http://zapa.photoshelter.com/). One is the Tawny-crowned Pygmy-Tyrant (Euscarthmus meloryphus, barulhento) a little bird very hard to see but easy to hear, hence it´s Brazilian name: barulhento.

       

The other bird is a fawn-breasted wren (Cantorchilus guarayanus, garrincha-do-oeste) an easy to find bird in gallery forests along the rio Negro.

Back to "normal"

The dramatic flood we had during the last 3 weeks is finally over. The water is receding to its normal level. After all the damage was close to none and the benefits by far outweigh the troubles it caused.

This picture symbolizes the vanishing flood ...

Jabiru stork taking off (note the sun´s reflection on the water droplets!)

Update Flood 2011

For the first time today the water of the Rio Negro didn´t rise anymore. We might be coming to the apex of the flood. This is the biggest ever measured flood in this area of the Pantanal.

Over the past 2 weeks the water rose daily, sometimes 50cm in 24 hours. The rains were heavy, in 12 days more than 520 mm, this on top of all the fallen rain in december/january. On the photos taken on the 1st of March (right) and later on the 13th of March 2011 (left) the difference of the water level is remarkable. The lodge (mid-right) is an island and the runway is partially flooded in. Note that the right photo is already a "wet" one, that means what we consider to be the peak of a normal flood.

Following you can see the lodge "island" and us towing the airplane to a higher part of the runway after a rainy (45mm) night.

Again, one has to point out that the flood is a highly beneficial act of nature. It reinvigorates the Pantanal´s exuberance of life. It restocks lakes and river with fishes and it keeps open grasslands "clean" from shrubs. 

Last but not least, it is a very healthy lesson to us humans who live in this natural paradise, teaching us to be  humble towards our environment.

Flood 2011

This summer (2010/2011) started in an unexpected manner, late rains and no flood until 10 days ago. On the 22nd of February the rio Negro finally started to raise and is now flooding a very extensive area of the local Pantanal. In these pictures you see: A) All of Sta. Tomázia (Barranco Alto´s other side of the river) is flooded as far as you can see B) The observation deck close to the lodge from where we normally look down (+/-3m in the dry season) at the bay looks like you would now be sitting in a bathtub C) the river is getting very close to the lodge.

In the last 24 hours it rained another 242 mm which is quite impressive for this region. That means 242 liters of rain per square meter or a total of more than 24 billion liters of water over the whole property !!!

But the Pantanal is only what we see because of this vastness of water; after all it is a FLOODPLAIN. And this is the natural cycle. It needs it.

We would like to share with you one of our favourite birds, the black-capped donacobius (Donacobius atricapilla, japacanim), or just the Donacobius since this is the only species within the donacobius genus. Once you find them, they´re very obvious and enjoyable to watch.

And more macaws

Do you remeber that hyacinth macaw´s (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, arara-azul grande) nest close to the lodge? Last year´s production was a single "little" blue macaw, but what a character... Somehow it seems that the bird  knows exactley what amuses us and is always ready for some funny positions! And don´t forget, it´s a wild bird that we don´t reward in any way.

Pampas Deer

Pampas deers (Ozotocerus bezoarticus, veado-do-campo) are commonly seen around here. They inhabit the grasslands and are a very important indicator of habitat health. Their main predator are the pumas (Puma concolor, onça-parda). When alarmed they stamp their hooves, lift their white tails and move away in a particular trot and with a silent whistle depositing odor.

Due to high genetic variability pampas deers are one of the most polymorphic mammals in South America. This suggests that the numbers of deers were vast in the recent past. The Pantanal is one of the last strongholds of this species.

Landscape of Exception

Some shots of the landscape around here, watch it on HD: 

Oropendolas

Oropendolas (Psarocolius decumanus, japu) are very gregarious birds that nest in colonies on big trees. These nests are wonderfully woven by the females out of palm and grass fibers. Toco toucans are their main predators and therefor the colonies are attentively guarded by the male birds.

The Rio Negro is one of the breeding grounds of the black skimmer (Rynchops niger, talha-mar). On Fazenda Barranco Alto this year there was an exceptionally big breeding colony of over one hundred birds on a single sandbank.

Note the much larger lower mandible.

Their nests are well protected from caymans because these can´t reach down into the little depression in the sand.

Skimmers have a light graceful flight being one of the favorite birds of the many photographers ...

They feed usually in small flocks, flying low over the water surface with the lower mandible skimming the water for small fish and insects caught by touch. 

A skimmer skimming !

Skimming next to a pied lapwing.

About Capybaras !

Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, capivara) are probably our most abundant native mammals together with white-lipped peccaries. They form bigger herds of up to 20 animals, lead by a dominant male which can be recognized by the prominent scent-gland on his nose. Their name derives from what the Guarani Indians call "the master of the grasses". 

They can become very tame if not stressed by people. On Fazenda Barranco Alto the "mineiros" group is a very relaxed one, led by Sir Michal and Lady Laura.

The notable Lady Laura.

Luminary Lord Michal.

Tony trying to be one of them...

Lady Laura feeding milk.

Another first documented sighting !

Fazenda Barranco Alto hosts several research projects. One of them is a survey on mammal diversity and densities by the german biologists Möcklinghoff et al. from the Department of Tropical Ecology of the Zoological Research Museum Koenig at Bonn. This week they recorded the first documented sighting of the brazilian bush dog  (Speothos venaticus, cachorro-vinagre) here on Fazenda Barranco Alto (for exact position click here).

These canids are extremly rare throughout their distribution range and photographs of them in the wild are even more extraordinary. This picture (and 3 more) was taken by a digital camera trap used in a 1x1km grid.

Bush dogs live in packs of up to 10 individuals and hunt in group, being able to bring down much larger prey than themselves.

Another very interesting property are their webed feet, indicating a high adaptation to wet environments like the Pantanal.

For better pictures follow this link: Google Images

Looks that kill

The puma or cougar (Puma concolor, onça-parda) is one of the more common cats around here, but still very elusive. Nevertheless we have an average of 3 sightings per month (over the last 24 months).

It´s looks are deceiving, what seems a cute sweet cat is a very efficient predator of animals as big as tapirs. But mostly they will hunt mammals from agouties to peccaries. Pumas have an impressive leaping and short-sprint ability because their hind legs which are proportionally the largest in the cat family.
By the way, the white flowers you see in this picture are of "assa-peixe" (Vernonia polysphaera) a very common plant with several medicinal properties.

And here´s another interesting sighting that we would like to share with you:

The untold Beauties

While everyone is fascinated by the parrots´ colors, few people note the beauty of these very common birds, the buff-necked Ibis (Theristicus caudatus, curicaca). They are always present on any grassland here in the Pantanal and their diet consists mainly of insects, spiders, frogs, reptiles, snakes, snails and many more little creatures.

Right now there are 3 nests of ibises literally above our roofs on palm trees and together with the hyacinth macaws they are our alarm clock in the mornings.

Yellow-faced Amazon (or Parrot)

The yellow-faced amazon (Amazona (or Alipiopsitta ) xanthops, papagaio-galego), is one of the rarest parrots in central Brazil. Their numbers are declining and they have already disappeared in large areas of its former range. The extent of yellow on their face and underparts is very variable even within the same group of birds. They are easiest to see early morning when they leave their night roost in flocks of up to 40 birds.

The world is pink again !

These days our world turned pink again. After a 56 mm rain most pink trumpet-trees (Tabebuia impetiginosa, piúva-do-campo, aka ipê-roxo) started to bloom like magic. For 15 days our forest looked like the picture below. Now it´s over and we´re already counting the days for the blooming of the yellow trumpet-trees in august ...