As a professional wildlife photographer and tour guide, one of my favourite places to travel to is the Brazilian Pantanal. This area is most famous for the third largest cat in the world, the jaguar. The name jaguar comes from an indigenous name “yaguar” which means “he who kills with one leap” and in my opinion an animal whose name has as cool of an origin story as that has to be worth seeing.
The Brazilian Pantanal is split into North and South with the North being the prime area for the jaguars and the South for giant anteaters. If you choose to visit the Brazilian Pantanal your journey will start in the city of Cuiaba and travel down the Transpantaneira road to the town of Porto Jofre. It is here that you will embark the boats and begin your search for these impressive big cats. Jaguars in the Pantanal are the largest in the world with the males sometimes weighing up to 120kg and the females weighing up to approximately 100kg in some cases.
This is largely due to the density of prey here. Capybara and yacare caiman are the main food sources for these big cats in this area and you can see why as soon as you take to the water. Almost everywhere you look there is at least one of these animals. But although jaguars are the main draw for people here that is not all you can see here. Giant river otters squeal and play in the tributaries, tapir cool down in the rusty waters, hyacinth macaws screech overhead flashing their striking blue feathers as they pass by, jabiru storks patrol the shallows hoping that a catfish will make a fatal mistake and kingfishers flit from perch to perch. This is such a biodiverse habitat it’s incredible to think that for an area the size of the UK only 5% of it is protected. To me, it shows what nature can do when it is left alone to flourish.
But of course the Pantanal isn’t just wetlands and waterways. Over 95% of it is ranch land and especially in the South Pantanal this provides great viewing opportunities of another of the areas big mammals. The giant anteater. Flying into Campo Grande you can then make your way to the quaint town of Bonito. The fields around this area are covered in termite mounds and ant hills, and luckily this is quite a draw for these bizarre but fascinating animals. Their powerful front paws are capable of ripping open a termite mound with one swipe which is no easy task for anyone without the right tools for the job. These mounds of hardened clay are formed over years of hard work from these industrial insects with many lasting decades and some even being waterproof due to the termites using their saliva during the construction of them. So, to witness these miracles of natural engineering get annihilated with one swipe of a paw from a giant anteater is awe-inspiring.
Close to Bonito there is also a clay lick for macaws. Once a cave over 300 million years ago and now a sinkhole Buraco das Araras is home to both red and green macaws and blue and yellow macaws. This is the largest sinkhole in South America at 500 metres across and over 100 metres deep it is a thing to behold. Not to mention the hundreds of macaws all flying and sitting around the circumference of this clay crater. Once this tour ended I spent just a few days exploring the wilderness of eastern Bolivia in search of jaguar. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side with these big cats, however, due to the extensive fires happening in this region the vast amounts of smoke was not creating an environment that these cats should be in. I was lucky with an ocelot, however, during a morning drive the local guide spotted something emerging from the smoke filled track.
Sure enough we waited and this small wildcat strolled nonchalantly towards us before dipping down into a storm crater presumably to try his luck with some frog hunting. I was also lucky enough to have sightings of spider, squirrel, howler and capuchin monkeys, tapir, tayra (basically a South American pine martin on steroids) and so many birds. It was such a shame to see yet another ecosystem being ruined by the greed of humanity and yet there was still so much beauty here.
To see more of Ben’s work visit his website: www.bensutcliffephoto.com – and keep up to date with Ben over on Instagram: ben_sutcliffe_photo