On August 16, we witnessed what has to rank with one of the most incredible wildlife experiences I’ve ever had. Cheryl and I were on a trip with 6 other nature photographers and our leader. We had been in the Pantanal area of Brazil for about a week with 5 days along the Cuiaba River near Porto Jofre, looking for Jaguars and other photo ops. Our daily routine was breakfast at 5:30 AM and we took off on boats from 6 till about 11AM, lunch at noon at the lodge, then on the boats again 3PM till dark. Our group has 3 boats so just 3 people per boat so plenty of room for photo gear, etc. Over several days we had seen 10-12 Jaguars. Some were very good photo ops, some poor photo ops, some just glimpsed.

There are several lodges in the area and it is a popular place to visit for folks hoping to see Jaguars, so much like Yellowstone National Park, a crowd can gather when some significant wildlife is seen, but instead of car jams to see a Grizzly such as Yellowstone, this can be boat jams for a jaguar. I have seen as many as 22 boats, 70-100 feet off shore with lots of people in each boat taking photos of a sleeping Jaguar. BUT…that is not the end of the story! We were often in more remote areas of the rivers and inlets and streams more or less on our own looking for birds, etc., so lots of times there are no other boats around. The boat drivers all have radios, so if a Jaguar is seen, other boats are informed. We move 20-25 miles up and down the river to explore, so many times other boats are not close enough to arrive while a Jaguar is in view.

My limited Jaguar experience is that some are just sleeping and/or resting and mostly ignore the boats in the river. Others are walking though the edge of the forest near the river and when a boat becomes visible, the animal just vanishes back into the forest. This morning at about 7:30 AM our three boats were in an out-of-the way location, a mile or so apart. The boat I was in was photographing a Great Black Hawk when one of our other boats called us on the radio to say they had a Jaguar swimming in the river, apparently hunting, so we headed to that area. Apparently the Jaguar, with just its head visible, swam up to loafing Yacare Caimans and pounced onto a caiman which was about 6 or so feet long. The Jaguar and the caiman thrashed in the water with the Jaguar biting into the skull of the caiman. That is about the time our boat arrived, after the Jaguar had mostly subdued the caiman, but the caiman was still thrashing about. The Jaguar was up against a high dirt bank, still mostly in the water with a firm grip on the skull of the caiman and the Jaguar was not letting go. It was very dark and under heavy foliage and vines so I was shooting at 4000 and 6400 ISO but that was my only choice. Eventually the Jaguar was able to work itself and its prize away from the vines and it drug the caiman out of the water and up the dirt bank and eventually back into the forest to enjoy its catch beyond the curious and amazed eyes of the human observers. The caiman was as large or larger than the Jaguar. All I have to say is that a mature Jaguar is an incredibly powerful predator and watching this whole 15 minute episode is something I’ll not forget. What a beast!

This entire series was shot from a boat, perhaps 40 feet off the bank with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II and a Canon 100-400 IS lens in case anyone is interested.

Cuiaba River,
near Porto Jofre,
Pantanal,
Brazil
16 August 2017

I see lots of shots of animal tracks posted on iNat, but save for a raccoon or a few other simple ones, I claim no knowledge or expertise in tracks in the snow, mud, etc. But I thought tracks of Emperor Penguin in soft snow might add a different critter to the tracks repertoire! Image 3 shows the culprits making the tracks! We watched this daily for 8 or 10 days on that trip to the Ross Sea in 2001. The track in image 1 is made by a single individual. When there are multiple birds in a line (and they often travel 2 to 25 or more in single file in the same rut), those marks on the side of the rut where their flippers propel them along get very obscure from multiple flippers.

When on rocks and gravel or a thin snow cover, Emperors walk upright. But when in loose snow, or they want to speed up, they flop down on their bellies and "take off" propelling themselves along with their rear feet as well as their flippers. Under many circumstances they can move a good bit faster than a person is able to. Emperors are 3 feet tall and large ones can weigh 70+ pounds.

Emperor Penguin
Aptenodytes forsteri
Cape Washington,
Ross Sea
Antarctica
4 December 2001

these images scanned from 35mm slides

Location: Cape Washington, Ross Sea, ... (Google, OSM)
Places: AQ, AQ, Antarctica More...
Lat -74.5248, Lon 165.1697
Accuracy: 1000m