Hide and seek

We have a small wooden hide, which sits on a bank overlooking a bend in the river near our lodge. The hide really blends in with its surroundings...

It is a perfect place to wait and see who might decide to stop by...


The other day, we were lucky enough to be visited in the late morning by our family of giant otters. First, they sunbathed for a while on the bank opposite our hide...


photo taken by John Broughton

They then proceeded to hunt on the same bend in the river which our hide overlooks. They initially caught some impressive-sized fish, and then much to our amazement, they caught and ate a caiman.
With the unusual drying out of the lakes caused by a historic drought this year, more caimans have migrated to the river, when normally they wouldn't need to. This has put pressure on the numbers of fish in the river which both they and the otters feed on. Therefore, by killing the caiman, the otters were not only feeding themselves, but were also decreasing the competition for their shared prey.

Our anteater friends

We are always very excited when we catch sight of a giant anteater, but at the moment it is Spring, and rising temperatures and humidity are making it harder to see these curious looking creatures. The reason for this is that anteaters have not evolved an efficient system for cooling down, and so if it is too hot for them, they have no choice but to remain in the cooler shade of the forest, making them much harder to spot. As temperatures drop in the autumn and winter months (May-August), it becomes easier to see anteaters in the open. The photo below shows an anteater in the open with its young hitching a ride on its back...


And here it is taking its first steps on terra firme, as well as negociating its first ant's nest...

The Acuri palm tree in front of the main Lodge building

Our lodge buildings, which are nestled under the forest canopy, have many acuri palm trees nearby (infact, there is one right in front of the main building terrace), and because of the important role that these trees play as a source of food in the Pantanal, so we have been able to observe the different animals that they attract. The acuri palm tree starts to bears fruit in the autumn and continues through the winter and spring.
The agouti which likes to live close to acuri trees, seems to spend its days burying acuri nuts to make sure that it still has food in the leaner months.

The agouti

The caracara

The white-lipped peccary

The feral pig

Other regular visitors of the acuri palm tree included a tapir, coatis, hyacinth macaws and blue and green-winged macaws.