Pantanal 2016

[jeremie]

Our main target at FBA were giant ant-eater, if posible with baby. dream fulfilled on our first safari!

 

Grand tamanoir - Giant anteater - Myrmecophaga tridactyla by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

I had hopes to spot the pampa deer, which is absent from the Cuiaba river area and only found on the Western side of the Paraguay river. They were everywhere at FBA!

 

Cerf des pampas - Pampa deer - Ozotoceros bezoarticus by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

It was a very interesting time of the year for this species. Dominant males are concentrating females in small groups. We saw one male chasing a female to push her in its herd. The other female did not look happy about it!

 

Pampa deer - Ozotoceros bezoarticus by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

Pampa deer - Ozotoceros bezoarticus by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

There are 3 species of real macaws at the farm, I would say hyacinth macaws and red and green macaws are the most common species in the area. Blue and Yellow macaws are also found in lower numbers, I think the size of their population is controlled by the availability of palm trees where they nest.

 

Ara hyacinthe - Hyacinth macaw - Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

We had remarquable sightings of two red footed tortoise, several brocket deers, one armadillo, a coati family, owler monkeys, one tayra, one tapir when we left the farm for Campo Grande by road, a group of giant otters in the river, lovely neotropical otters babies playing together and mum.

There is a small island on the Rio Negro where skimmers and yellow billed terns nest.

On the farm, large groups of white lipped peccaries are looking for food almost every day in the gardens of the fazenda.

There is a famous pair of hyacinth macaws nesting about two hundred meters from the lodge, Nat Geo followed them during several months years ago. Greater rheas are also to be found in the gardens of the Fazenda, not to far from the caimans and the capybaras.

 

We had a last sighting of giant ant-eater one the road between FBA and Aquidauana:

 

Giant anteater - Myrmecophaga tridactyla by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

I will try to take the time to edit further pictures of these two last days at FBA. Would love to share with you the baby otters!

Edited May 26, 2017 by jeremie

[Atdahl]

Great shots Jeremie. So, sorry to hear about Karina's eye. I hope she has fully recovered. It's too bad that you didn't have your full 5 nights at FBA. You saw a lot in your 2 days though. We were there last September for 4 nights but we missed out on seeing a Giant Anteater so I am very jealous of your excellent pictures!

 

Did you have Stefan as a guide by chance? He was excellent for us and we know we must return to FBA sometime soon since that Giant Anteater is still there...somewhere.

 

Alan

[jeremie]

Great shots Jeremie. So, sorry to hear about Karina's eye. I hope she has fully recovered. It's too bad that you didn't have your full 5 nights at FBA. You saw a lot in your 2 days though. We were there last September for 4 nights but we missed out on seeing a Giant Anteater so I am very jealous of your excellent pictures!

 

Did you have Stefan as a guide by chance? He was excellent for us and we know we must return to FBA sometime soon since that Giant Anteater is still there...somewhere.

 

Alan

 

 

Alan: Yes we had very good sightings, especially if we considerer that we really spent one afternoon and one morning of real safari. We were more worried about Karina's eyes on next afternoon and decided to leave as soon as posible the day after to get to the nearest hospital.

 

I would say that FBA offers sightings of outstanding quality, compared to the other places we visited. We were only 8 meters from the giant anteater with baby for half an hour, and stayed around an hour with the neotropical otters babies with mum. This is just amazing. Animals are very confident, we were able to get very close to the deers, the rheas and the peccaries.

 

I forgot to say the day we arrived, people saw an anaconda eating a hyacinth macaw, unfortunately, they did not tell us on time to come to see the scene. I the afternoon it was all done.

 

 

Big+five+BAL.jpg

Edited May 26, 2017 by jeremie

[Alexander33]

I'm so sorry to hear that your time at Barranco Alto was cut short. It is a very special place to us, and I hope you will have the opportunity to return some day. Lucas and Marina run a fantastic operation there.

 

However, the important thing was the well-being of Karina's eye, and I hope that all is now well.

 

On the wildlife side, I'm very thankful you were able to see the anteater with her baby. But.....

 

Yellow anaconda taking a hyacinth macaw? That is dissetling in some ways, but also something quite unique I would imagine. I love the macaws though, so I must admit I'm glad I didn't see that spectacle.

[jeremie]

@Alexander33: she is better but she did not completely recovered. Most important is that she did not lost her eye considering we were really far from any hospital, when it is urgent to be treated very quickly for this kind of disease. In this case the lesson is that it should be forbidden to use contact lenses everywhere far from house. People usually are not sufficient aware that contact lenses are very risky and dry up the eyes, which favors the proliferation of bacteries.

Edited May 27, 2017 by jeremie

[PCNW]

@@jeremie Oh my gosh every photo is phenomenal!! Your 80-400 served you very well. Delightful trip report. I was thinking today that a lot of my images from that lens were as sharp or sharper than the 600.

[jeremie]

@@jeremie Oh my gosh every photo is phenomenal!! Your 80-400 served you very well. Delightful trip report. I was thinking today that a lot of my images from that lens were as sharp or sharper than the 600.

 

 

@PCNW: Thank you very much for your nice comments, this lens works very well. I only feel limited when trying to shot difficult birds, where a 500 mm (coupled with TC 1,7) could be very useful.

[Atravelynn]

How terrifying to have a severe eye infection that could have resulted in the loss of sight. Not something you want to have happen on your holiday, or anytime. Your advice on not wearing contacts may save someone else. I hope Karina recovers fully soon. Glad that Lucas and Marina were helpful to you in your difficult situation. They are lovely people.

 

From jaguars to tapirs to giant anteaters, your trip produced some tremendous sightings.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Atravelynn

[janzin]

Just catching up with this...fabulous photos all the way through. You do wonders with that 80-400, I was never as successful with it!

 

Very interesting observations about Taiama. I remember when we booked our trip Leen talked me out of adding on Taiama, and that was a couple of years ago (2015). And I know that a group that went at just the time we were there saw only one jaguar in four days...and that was with going out all day on the boat, not even returning for lunch. It seems you were really lucky around this new flotel (which wasn't opened yet when we went, I don't think.)

 

Very sorry to hear about Karina's eye and that you had to cut your trip short, but eyes are one thing never to mess around with or take for granted I hope one day you both will get to return (if Karina can get over the bad experience.)

[monalisa]

Wow I am very sorry to hear of Karina's eye!! That certainly would have been a terrifying time. Hopefully someday you will get to return to Barranco Alto under happier circumstances.

 

Also how lucky that you got to see an anteater with a baby on its back!! I had wished to see that too. We didn't, but still lucky to see anteaters in the first place 

Your photos are just incredible, I wish I was that talented!!

[jeremie]

I recovered many Pantanal pictures on my external disk. Here is a movie I shot of our first jaguar:

 

https://vimeo.com/227357851

Edited July 28, 2017 by jeremie

[jeremie]

Onça pintada - Jaguar - Panthera onca by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

Striated heron - Butorides striata by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

 

Onça pintada - Jaguar - Panthera onca by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

[jeremie]

Onça pintada - Jaguar - Panthera onca by Goulevitch Jérémie, sur Flickr

Edited August 4, 2017 by jeremie

[pault]

Oh, well I am glad it took you so long to finish this (although not for the reason!!). I have to go back to work but I will be back for the rest and looking for updates. Great photos and moments captured - they really are lovely to look at.

 

 

 

(By the way.... and this is personal........ I prefer your first edit of the jaguar to the one you just posted - you could crop to 7x5 (very nice for prints and screens anyway) and darken the parts of the picture outside the new crop rather than cropping it all away - but that is just my taste as I like to see habitat too; you are a much "cleaner" photographer than me I think)

[jeremie]

@pault The point is that I had lost many pictures from Pantanal, but I recently acquired one software called Wondershare recovery and I found back hundreds of pictures scanning my external disks. I am very happy about it, I felt really bad when I realized I had lost such fantastic pictures. I am not sure I understood your suggestion for the last jaguar portrait (which is indeed a crop of the first jaguar pics). I slightly change the edition and decided to darken the periphery of the photo, but I guess you would have preferred to increase this effect. Is this correct? I will try to do so.

[pault]

5 hours ago, jeremie said:

@pault The point is that I had lost many pictures from Pantanal, but I recently acquired one software called Wondershare recovery and I found back hundreds of pictures scanning my external disks. I am very happy about it, I felt really bad when I realized I had lost such fantastic pictures. I am not sure I understood your suggestion for the last jaguar portrait (which is indeed a crop of the first jaguar pics). I slightly change the edition and decided to darken the periphery of the photo, but I guess you would have preferred to increase this effect. Is this correct? I will try to do so.

 

Oh, that is lucky! What a shame if you had lost them. And yes that was my idea, but whether it will work....? 

[Alexander33]

Really glad you were able to recover so many of your photos. What a nightmare!

[xyz99]

You must be so happy! I know I would be devastated to lose such pictures...glad it worked out well in the end, that jaguar is a beauty.

[SafariChick]

Just got a chance to read this report @jeremie and really enjoyed it. Stunning photos!!  So sorry about Karina's eye - I wear contacts and do always wear them on safari because I hate wearing glasses, especially in heat and sun.  I bring wetting drops everywhere as my eyes do get dry but never thought of it leading to an infection - I'm so glad she didn't lose the eye but very upsetting experience, it sounds like.  

Did you ever get to process the baby otter photos you mentioned?

[jeremie]

@SafariChick: Not yet... I am very, very late with many trips done this year. I am currently developing pics from the Bolivian pampas (I will post a TR very soon here), from South Andean Deers in Patagonia and from burowing parrots close to Santiago...

[xyz99]

 

1 hour ago, jeremie said:

@SafariChick: Not yet... I am very, very late with many trips done this year. I am currently developing pics from the Bolivian pampas (I will post a TR very soon here), from South Andean Deers in Patagonia and from burowing parrots close to Santiago...

 

Ohhh, Jeremie, theses all sound wonderful, can't wait to read more about these areas and see the pics. Hurry up, please :-)

[SafariChick]

@jeremie I understand. Just know you have an audience here who'd love to see them if you are able to do it!