Pantanal do Norte: Jaguar!

After our first excursion at Rio Claro, James and I opted for a 14-hour extravaganza all the way to Porto Jofre, 146 miles from Poconé and our pousada, in the center of the southern Pantanal. Our guide Domingas was born and raised around there. What a pistol! Pure firecracker! She picked us up at 4:00 AM sharp in her own van, and did all the driving. She has no office to pay for, and no website to manage. She gets clients from the pousadas, and through friends, Facebook, and word of mouth. Domingas in two words: a master.

It was unseasonably cold, and I shivered in a blanket brought from the hotel. At around 6:30 AM, we stopped to watch the sunrise and eat breakfast. Domingas flagged down road repair trucks to offer drivers breakfast as well. At around 8:00 AM, we arrived at the hamlet of Porto Jofre, and few minutes later we were in a small motorboat on the Cuiabá River. Because of the cold, the chances of seeing many jaguars were limited. However, for hours we trolled the riverbank, Domingas and Carlos the Boatman teaming up as we motored in and out of the jaguar habitat.

Despite their single-minded search along the riverbank, James and I found other things of interest: capybaras, the “regular” rich birdlife of the Pantanal, a lusher vegetation than the territory of the day before, and splendid skies. Around 11 AM, Domingas spotted our “prey,” a gigantic male spotted jaguar, which Carlos estimated to weigh around 132 pounds, 60 kilos. All hell broke loose: birds started screaming, and a male capybara on a sand bank let out a continuous honking bark of warning. Fear. We watched and followed in the boat, as the jaguar walked along the riverbank to a certain point. Then he entered the water, and calmly swam to the other side of the river. It turned out he was returning to his kill of the day before: a 160-pound alligator, killed by a deep bite wound on the top of it’s head.

Domingas signaled through radio walkie-talkies to other guides doing the same stalking as us, so three boats followed the jaguar’s efforts. First, he tried to drag the alligator corpse up the steep bank. Too heavy, and he slipped down. Then he dragged it in the river to a flatter part of the riverbank. No success there either. Finally, he hauled it behind some foliage, and commenced to eat. Domingas told us he would return with his mate for two to three days to continue eating. At that point, we returned to the Porto Jofre pousada from where we had set out, and ate OUR lunch.

What a triumph to see that magnificent animal in his native habitat! He calmly carried out what he did to survive—completely unperturbed by us gawkers. And he was quite frightening. All of the guides I had in the Pantanal told me they were much more afraid of “onças” than they were of any other creature. That group now includes me!Read more