Blog Feed: Blog about the Beauties of the Pantanal

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

Published on 2012-05-20 12:47:00

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! > read more

Brazilian spines

Published on 2012-04-23 08:14:00

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. The [..] > read more

Double-Rainbow

Published on 2012-04-13 14:17:00

This is a beautiful picture taken around here by our resident anteater researcher > read more

Jaguar's camouflage

Published on 2012-04-01 11:50:00

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 > read more

The mini-macaw

Published on 2012-03-02 12:47:00

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 ... > read more

Message from the sky

Published on 2012-02-02 12:16:00

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. > read more

Predators can be prey themselves ...

Published on 2012-01-24 03:07:00

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

Published on 2012-01-11 12:20:00

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... > read more

Toucans in their nests agree

Published on 2011-12-09 14:36:00

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 [..] > read more

Haley´s Adventures

Published on 2011-11-29 17:01:00

http://www.craigmorecreations.comTake 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 ! > read more

Published on 2011-11-10 05:56:00

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 ... > read more

Black is beautiful !

Published on 2011-10-29 12:47:00

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

Sunbirds !

Published on 2011-10-13 19:11:00

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. > read more

Nosey bat

Published on 2011-09-15 19:14:00

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! > read more

The Swamp Hen

Published on 2011-09-04 14:26:00

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... > read more

A golden beauty

Published on 2011-07-02 19:06:00

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 (C > read more

Tiger heron

Published on 2011-06-26 11:26:00

If you go around and watch carefully, you´ll notice that many different 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 wai > read more

Little

Published on 2011-06-09 18:55:00

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. > read more

And just another new sighting !

Published on 2011-05-27 20:10:00

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 > read more

Our chickens are all gone again !

Published on 2011-05-19 20:38:00

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 > read more

A golden necklace

Published on 2011-05-09 14:25:00

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. > read more

An intriguingly different armadillo ...

Published on 2011-04-27 17:58:00

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 > read more

Forest ground runners

Published on 2011-04-20 15:17:00

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.A > read more

And more sightings !

Published on 2011-04-14 20:56:00

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 > read more

Back to "normal"

Published on 2011-03-27 20:03:00

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 . > read more

Update Flood 2011

Published on 2011-03-15 07:48:00

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 i > read more

Flood 2011

Published on 2011-03-02 14:35:00

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 > read more