Jaguar Safari in the Pantanal: The Best of Brazil

This post may contain affilitate links. This means if you click on the link and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Any opinions expressed are my own.

I decided to take a trip to Brazil based almost entirely on the appeal of the Pantanal.  I’m not sure how well-known this site is to the general public, but it is a tremendously popular ecotourism destination.  There’s plenty of cool critters and beautiful birds to see in Brazil, but the most people come to the lowlands for one specific target – one of those charismatic big cats everyone loves to see.  It’s almost certain that a visit to the Pantanal will include a search for the Jaguar.  

That Darned Cat

I had never seen a big cat before my trip to Brazil.  At that point, my only trip to Africa was to Ethiopia – not a “Big 5” destination.  And of course I’d love to see every Panthera this world has to offer.  I’m just a bit slow to get started. 

At the time, videos of male jaguars preying upon black caiman had experienced quite a moment of internet popularity.  This is unlikely to be a tourist’s view of the cat, of course.  This big cat with beautifully patterned fur is near threatened, having lost about 40% of its historic range.  Besides, visitors have to have realistic expectations!  Any glimpse of this secretive predator would be exciting. 

Populations are most stable in equatorial South America, especially the Amazonian rain forests of Peru.  Despite larger populations in the Amazon, the Pantanal in Brazil has the reputation for providing the best opportunity for observing a jaguar in the wild. 

I booked an available tour.  The itinerary included 10 days in the Pantanal and Cerrado (plus an extension into the Amazon basin).  Granted, this was a birding tour.  But we’re talking a birding/wildlife tour now.  On trips like this, the birders tend to be less driven to get the highest bird numbers and have a broader interest in wildlife.  

The Wetlands

The Pantanal begins just south of Cuiabá, a city in the western Brazilian state of Mato Grasso.  It’s the largest tropical wetland in the world. It covers most of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but extends into much of Mato Grasso and crosses borders into Bolivia and Paraguay.

The Pantanal is protected by the Ramsar Convention and a portion is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Pantanal is a depression, a large delta of converging rivers.  It is seasonally flooded and supports a diverse ecosystem of vegetation and dense wildlife populations.  But it’s also a threatened system – particularly from cattle ranching and logging.  Cattle ranching is the dominant land use across the entire wetland.  (And, as a special added concern, sometimes predators aren’t welcome in landscapes where they might prey on livestock.)

Destination: Porto Jofre

From Cuiabá, we head south on the Transpantaneira, the two-lane dirt highway connecting Poconé to Porto Jofre.  Porto Jofre is, quite literally, the end of the road.  It’s actually north-central in terms of the Pantanal, but this is a northern access point from Mato Grasso.

This is a long day of travel.  In fact, Porto Jofre was our second destination. We had already driven for hours after leaving Cuiabá to arrive at our first lodge near the Rio Claro.  This was the second stretch, but it was still a lengthy drive on a dirt road. 

It did include a nice lunch stop and great birding, though.  In central and South America, the bird feeders frequently include fruits.  This stop was no exception, and we were delighted to see hungry araçari eating lunch.

After hours of driving (with birding stops), we arrived at Porto Jofre in the early evening.  This was our most anticipated destination of the entire tour.  There wasn’t much opportunity for birding on the grounds this night.  But we were excited for the following day, which would begin the search for wildlife along the river.

Jaguar Safari

The next morning, we boarded the boat from our dock on the Rio São Lourenço to search for our prime target.  This is not the serene excursion you might be picturing – imagine, instead, numerous motorboats heading out on the river throughout the day.  Each is searching for the same elusive cat.  A sighting leads to frantic calls over the radio, and all boats descend upon the same location.  The moments are filled with anticipation of seeing the cat and dread that our arrival will be too late…

One…

Finally, the call came for a location somewhat close to us – our driver raced over in time to see a beautiful adult Jaguar striding along the river’s edge.  She was the first big cat I had ever seen, and she was perfect. 

I couldn’t stop shaking; the sight of her filled me with a rush of relief and happiness that was surprising to me.  She soon started walking, stalking along the banks of the river and moving in and out of sight behind the vegetation.  We were told she had cubs and was hunting for them, although we did not spot them at the time.  All the spectators watched her walk the bank for hundreds of meters, slowly boating along to keep her pace.  Eventually, she stalked away, tracking inlets where boats could not float.  

Two…

Once she had disappeared, we ventured away down the river to observe more wildlife.  But, as luck would have it, she re-appeared not long after.  This time, she was simply sitting at rest on a small sandy point.  After a few moments, the cat began walking again. 

Unfortunately, she didn’t venture very far down the bank before she disappeared from view.  

Three!

The day’s river tour was eventful with a number of great wildlife observations, in addition to our two jaguar sightings.  It was about time to end the day when another call came over the radio.  We weren’t far from the reported location, so our captain sped down the river to try to see jaguar a third time.

As we approached the location, we saw a neat row of boats – waiting.  They motioned for us to stop, and so we sat motionless, staring across a channel of water.  Soon, between us and those aligned boats, the head of a jaguar appears.  The cat was swimming across the river!  The mother had already crossed – this was the second cub.

We only really saw its head as it swiftly paddled through the water.  But it was remarkable – to see how easily and quickly those cats can swim!

Cost/Benefit: Are Jaguar Tours Good?

Heck, I can’t be certain about this.  It probably requires some research, and even then the decision to seek out this type of activity would come down to personal interest/comfort.

Honest assessment, there’s probably potential for tourism to wreak havoc here, same as anywhere.  If people want to see the cats, they might need more places to stay, might need more boats on the water.  At some times, maybe there already are a large number operating in a finite linear space.  But whether you see cats crossing the water or prowling on the water’s edge, you can only get as close as your captain allows.  The cat will always have more options for movement than the tourists, even if there’s an annoying number of boats out on the water.

And lodges do not seem to dominate the landscape.  There are a few options in Porto Jofre, but the development is still at low densities and minimal.

On the other hand, the allure of the jaguar does provide clear economic value to an ecologically sensitive area, which doesn’t hurt when there are economic powerhouses vying for the same landscape.  And the tourists are coming to see the cats, giving a remarkable incentive to support conserving the habitats and land use that would keep them around.

Bottom line:  Like in all ecotourism activities, it’s good to be thoughtful about choosing a conscientious tour operator.  But given the lower potential for tourists to directly impact the cats, it does seem sensible to give the wetlands (and their threatened wildlife) a distinct, measurable economic value.  This is in addition to any intrinsic value of the ecosystem.  Unfortunately, that type of value is not universally respected.  

The Wildlife Parade

As lovely as seeing the jaguar was, it was only the highlight of a tremendous day on the river.  We saw herons trying, unsuccessfully, to devour an utterly enormous catfish.  Elegant swallow-tailed kites swooped around us, catching insects in mid-flight.  Osprey perched above us, enjoying its recent catch.  And, one of the most common sights was families of capybara, watching us from the bank.  

This Otter Be Good…

If any critter were to secure a Number 2 spot on our “Best Wildlife of the Day” list, it would have to be the Giant Otter.

Note:  We did not actually make a “best wildlife of the day” list.  The best on this day was pretty clear to everyone with a pulse.  Also, no more lists are allowed.  We probably spend more than an hour reviewing the bird checklist each night… (yep, that is actually a thing we do!)

We watched a family of Giant Otters as they swam together, eating a meal of fish.  As we watched, they climbed out of the river to return to their bank den.  As some continued swimming nearby, one otter dug sand from the den entrance.  Then, others stalked around the nearby bank, blatantly marking their territory. 

It was a tremendous production of natural history theatre.

Porto Jofre – Day Two

Our itinerary included two days of in the Porto Jofre area.  Since we’d seen the jaguar on our first day on the river, most folks opted for bird walks on our second day.  We saw a good number of birds, including some lovely Toco Toucans, grey ibis, and wetlands full of lily pads and wading birds. 

But the most engaging species was not hard to spot on the grounds of our lodge – the Hyacinth Macaw.  There was even a statue of a macaw on the grounds, although I assumed at first that the statue was just honoring a beautiful local bird.  We didn’t see any on our first day at the lodge.  But, as it turns out, the statue was an omen of many sightings to come. 

Once macaws were spotted in the trees outside our rooms, they seemed to be in every tree.  And, in typical macaw fashion, they seemed to be laughing at us from their high perches. 

These are simply spectacular parrots, large and brilliantly colored.  I am a sucker for a blue bird; I just can’t help myself.  

Beyond the grounds and the wetlands, we continued to explore small trails just off the entrance road.  Short walks led to a number of new songbirds in the understory of small forest tracts and shrubby edges.  We did take some short drives to increase our trail access, but there was plenty habitat to explore and keep us birding through the day.

For Your Consideration

When to Go

Although I’ve heard Porto Jofre can actually be a fairly busy place, we were lucky that there were probably less than ten boats on our section of the river this day.  I’m sure timing is important here for both the crowds and the possibilities of seeing jaguar in the Pantanal, so it’s worth consideration – especially if large numbers would lessen your enjoyment of the experience.

In the wet season, typically October-April, many of the grasslands are flooded.  This is also during the southern hemisphere’s spring and summer, so these months are generally warmer and rainier.  During this time, you’d have less hiking opportunities and wildlife might be more dispersed.

In drier periods, water bodies might be more limiting as the precipitation wanes.  The fauna tends to be concentrated and easier to spot/access.  My tour took place in mid-August, which is dry season and winter in the southern hemisphere.  So if you want drier weather, good temperatures, and better wildlife viewing… you’ll probably shoot for fall or winter (April-September).

This is when most folks travel to the Pantanal.  So if general tourism logic applies in Brazil, trying to travel when schools are in session will probably help reduce crowding more than anything else.  It might have been due to the greater appeal of the Olympics that year, but we didn’t encounter substantial crowds during our tour.

Where to Stay

The Pantanal is a huge area, so Porto Jofre isn’t the only option for accessing the wetland complex.  It was perfect for our itinerary because access from Mato Grasso allowed us to combine the jaguar safari in the Pantanal with birdwatching in cerrado habitats north of Cuiabá.  But access from the state directly south, Mato Grasso do Sul, is also possible.  The likely destination airport there would be Campo Grande.

Our lodging in Porto Jofre was comfortable but basic.  There was air conditioning here and wifi access.  Meals were provided at a large dining hall and were mainly buffet service for dinner.  The food was plentiful and generally good even if somewhat basic, but the grounds were a winner.  There was plenty of birding to do on the property, and wildlife observations are the reason we come to the Pantanal.

All the above is basic information because it is unlikely that you’ll be deliberating about where to fly into or which lodge to book.  Tour operators will hold the keys to that information.  Once you find a tour operator with availability and options that fit your interests/budget, they’ll be telling you which arrangements you should make (like destination airports).  But it’s very likely that the hotel will be chosen for you as part of the package and that ground transport will be arranged for you by the company.

Managing Expectations

Everyone on this trip was there to see a jaguar in the Pantanal.  Did we use a birding company?  Yep.  Did we expect to see all the birds of the area as well?  Absolutely.  Would we have dedicated all of our time in Porto Jofre to searching for a cat?  Of course – it’s a JAGUAR!  

We were lucky to see a couple jaguars on our first day on the river.  But one of our group did go back on the river for the second day, to see if lightning would strike twice.  It did not.  It is absolutely imperative to schedule more than oned day in the area.  In not, you’re betting on sightings every day and the certainty of great weather.  If you’re traveling all the way to the Pantanal to see a jaguar, that’s just not a bet worth taking!