July 5-16, 2025 with Marcelo Padua
Seeing a Jaguar in the wild is a rare occasion, but there is a place in the heart of South America, deep in the Pantanal, where jaguars are seen daily and have become accustomed to the human presence, and that is the high point of our tour. But first, our group got together In Cuiaba and we drove to Garden of the Amazon, a lovely lodge that sits in the ecotone between the Cerrado and the Amazon where animals find shelter from the massive agricultural fields that surround it and rare birds continue to hang on despite the fragmentation of their habitat.
On our first morning at Garden of the Amazon, we set out early to look for the rare Cone-billed Tanager and we found not only that, but also American Pygmy Kingfisher, Spotted Puffbird, Southern White-fringed Antwren, Silvered Antbird, Point-tailed Palmcreeper and even Amazonian Umbrellabirds.
On the following days, we explored the trail system at the lodge and came across several Amazonian specialties including Orange-cheeked Parrot, Rondonia Warbling-Antbird, Ochre-throated Foliage-gleaner, Ringed Antpipit, Rufous-capped Nunlet and Black-girdled Barbet, just to name a few. We also took some time to enjoy a memorable sunset by a lake, and enjoy as dozens of Blue-and-yellow Macaws came to roost, accompanied by Yellow-crowned Parrots, Red-bellied Macaws, Western Cattle Egrets and several others.
Birding at Garden of the Amazon was a treat, but our real goal was to be found in the Pantanal, and so we had to make our way south to look for Jaguars.
Our first day in the Pantanal was spent at Aymara Lodge, where we connected with the iconic Hyacinth Macaw as well as Bare-faced Curassows, Great Rufous Woodcreeper, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, and several others, before continuing our way south to Porto Jofre. There, we spent three nights filled with excitement as we explored the rivers of the area looking for Jaguar (which we saw several times) but also enjoying every critter we could find. These included Giant Otters, Black-capped Donacobius, White-throated Piping-Guan, Jabirus, Greater Bulldog Bats and Band-tailed Nighthawks.
We definitely had a wonderful time here, but we saved one last stop for the end of the tour and we transferred to Piuval Lodge, where we found several great birds even on the last day of the tour, adding Black-bellied Antwren, Gray-breasted Crake, Buff-bellied Hermit and Helmeted Manakin to our list.
In addition to finding Jaguar we found several other mammals. They were:
Greater Sac-winged Bat (Saccopteryx bilineata)
Greater Bulldog Bat (Noctilio leporinus)
Lesser Bulldog Bat (Noctilio albiventris)
Black-tailed Marmoset (Mico melanurus)
Black-headed Night Monkey (Aotus nigriceps)
Black-and-gold Howler (Alouatta caraya)
Brown Capuchin (Sapajus apella)
White-bellied Spider Monkey (Adele's belzebuth)
Greater Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
Azara's Agouti (Dasyprocta azarae)
Crab-eating Fox (Cerdocyon thous)
South American Coati (Nasua nasua)
Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis)
Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)
Jaguar (Panthera onca)
Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris)
Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus)
Common Red Brocket (Mazama americana)
Our tour was amazing and filled with great wildlife encounters from beginning to end (we even found some marmosets at a gas station on our way to the airport) and I loved showing you my neck of the woods. I hope we get to do it again some day in some other remote corner of the world.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/437688
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/jag25TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Marcelo Padua