Ichthyophagous ich·thy·oph·a·gous/ˌikTHēˈäfəgəs/

Living in the shade of the astonishing giant otters, the neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis, lontra) is a solitary carnivore that feeds primarily on fish, but they will eat many other living creatures. Over the years we've seen them eating even caimans and proboscis bats.

They are considered rare and shy animals but the ones that live around here are just the other way round: curious and audacious!

Brazilian spines

Today a neighbor came by and incidentally mentioned that he had just seen a Brazilian porcupine (Coendou prehensilis, ouriço-caixeiro) on the way over. After years living in the Pantanal, seeing several dozens of jaguars, pumas and other rare animals we still haven't seen any porcupines. The closest we got was finding their spines in the dense forest. Of course we rushed out to see the rarity and there it was, peacefully sleeping on fence wires.

Porcupines are arboreal and nocturnal rodents. They're covered with short, thick spines which are whitish or yellowish in color, mixed with the darker hair and protect them very effectively from predators such as ocelots.

Note the prehensile tale, it's reflective feet and the long clawed toes.

Double-Rainbow

This is a beautiful picture taken around here by our resident anteater researcher Lydia Möcklinghoff . It was one of these days right after a good rain shower ... Click on it and view it in full size !

Jaguar's camouflage

This picture is to celebrate a week with wonderful cat sightings. It was an exceptional week, during a season where any sightings are scarce: 2 jaguars (called Sally and Wally) and 2 pumas, not just glimpses, but hour-long watching with behavior, hunting, fighting and more ...

This picture is of an untamed, non baited jaguar, totally wild. Seen on the banks of the Rio Negro, Pantanal. See location here: http://g.co/maps/34w25 

Disclaimer: any cat sighting is rare and should not be expected.

The uncommon crane hawk (Geranospiza caerulescens, gavião-pernilongo) is a fascinating raptor, grey in color with very long orange legs, used to reach into crevices and cavities of trees to obtain snakes, lizzards, nestling birds, bats, and other food items.

The mini-macaw

The Red-shouldered Macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis, maracanã-nobre) is the smallest of our macaws, it measures only up to 35 cm in length. They are best visible in the summer months ...

Message from the sky

This is a glimpse of one of those magical moments that are almost daily witnessed in the Pantanal. It makes you realize how much more we should care about our environment.

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.