Up Close and Personal with the Mythical Jaguar, the Cheeky Coati and the Laid-back Capybara.

During a week, my friends and I explored Iguaçu Falls and the Pantanal wetlands.   They did not need much convincing to pay a visit to Brazil ‘s landmark, one of the 7 New Wonders of Nature and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site as well as to discover the wild side and exotic corners of Pantanal.  Moreover, these magnificent places are home to an incredibly diverse wildlife. 

Iguaçu/Iguazu Waterfalls are naturally awesome; they are the largest waterfall system in the world.  During our stay, the water level was abnormally high due to heavy rainfall upstream.  There was so much water that the 275 individual waterfalls or cascades were all overflowing with milk-chocolate colored water.  On the walkways to the U-shaped Devil’s Throat Chasm, our flimsy raincoats did not offer protection, we were soaked to the bone by the water spray.  Information panels stated that the fall’s water had turned brown due to sedimentation resulting from deforestation. This change affects birds, which are less able to see fish, and fish, which are confused by the silt.   80% of the waterfalls are on the Argentinian side, and for a full waterfall experience one must cross to explore the Argentinian side and to stay in the only two hotels within the park.

We splurged and spent three nights at the five-star Belmond Hotel das Cataratas on the Brazilian side.  The hotel belongs to LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate.  Although its construction started in 1939, it was only inaugurated in 1958, in the heyday of Brazil’s Golden Age.  The hotel is a national landmark and cannot be modified.  It was my third stay at the hotel; I noticed that the style of the furniture had not changed since my first visit in the 1970s.  The standard rooms are very small; rooms are more Motel 6 in size than Ritz’s, but service and cuisine compensate for this shortcoming.  Every guest is greeted by name with their needs proactively anticipated.  Among the perks was the daily complimentary sunset bubbly tasting in front of the waterfalls. 

                                                                     Getting soaked in font of Garganta del Diablo

Guests, local birds and critters interacted at breakfast time around the pool.  Flying over our heads and food, the colorful plush-crested jays have a knack for distracting the human guests and stealing a crumb.  However, in the hotel garden the indisputable entertainers are the ring-tailed coatis, a kind of tropicalized raccoon.  During the whole morning, one could watch and photograph the coati families’ antics.  The cute, clever, curious, playful and pesky coatis have become the iconic mammals of the Iguaçu Park.   They are all over the place! Highly adaptable and opportunistic, they seek easy meals.  In the Argentine park, picnic cages have been built to keep tourists in and coatis and monkeys out!

Brazil has its own “Big Five” for a photographic safari; they may be less imposing than Africa's celebrated animals, but they are more difficult to spot.  They are the jaguar, the giant anteater, the tapir, the giant river otter and the maned wolf.  I have seen all of them during my previous trips.  In Brazil, the best place to observe jaguars is the Pantanal where the apex predator can be spotted along dirt tracks and water edges.  We stayed in the Refugio da Ilha lodge located near the town of Miranda, two and a half hours from Bonito airport.  The lodge is built on one island of the Salobra.  It takes conservation seriously; it is the base of the Salobra Delta Institute (IDS) which aims at protecting jaguars and rare wildlife like the anteater.  It offers boat and jeep safaris to observe the elusive local wildlife: we spotted jaguars, anteaters, ocelots, giant otters in addition to caimans, capybaras, deer and lots of birds.

Thanks to Mauricio the conservation soul, and Joilson the de facto jaguar whisperer, we became up close and personal with Kim, a lady jaguar, and the amorous jaguar couple Arrego and Terena, coincidentally named after Joilson’s indigenous people.  Jaguars are the Americas’ apex predators but to its original inhabitants they represent more than the top slot on a safari ranking.  The jaguars occupy a mythical position in America’s traditions; their strength, beauty and cruelty connected them to the spirit realm, being able to move between the worlds of the living and the dead.

                                            The jaguar head has a distinctive "rosette" above the nose.

This mythical status seems to have been lost on the European colonizers who until recently killed jaguars and other wildlife with abandon.  The Salobra delta is not immune to conflict between conservation-based tourism and the supporters of agro-predation.  While observing Arrego and Terena during an evening jeep safari, two vehicles passed by and their respective drivers expressed displeasure with our parked jeeps blocking their way.  Upset by the commotion, the jaguars fled to the bush.  Pantanal farmers are still in a slash and burn mode: the bush is cleared for farmland.  As soil fertility quickly declines, farmers abandon the land to burn new areas, worsening drought and fire risk as well as river sedimentation which reduces navigation.  Jaguar tourism is growing fast, maybe not for its own good: jaguars are becoming accustomed to people and may get closer to ranch animals.

Jaguars fascinate me, but my favorite animal is the gentle capybara.  Its calm, friendly and peaceful ways have a soothing effect on me.  The largest rodent in the world has also become a shoo-in on social media, and thanks to the Oscar winning animated film Flow (2025),the capybara has reached movie star status.  It is the most peaceful, balanced and diplomatic member of a group of hapless animals caught in a flood; unity and survival skills save them from drowning.  Capybara is the animal for our trouble times; it seems to react with a placid and friendly attitude to the brutality of life. 

                                                                                           Capybara family life

                                                                          

IDS: https://deltadosalobra.org