Kingdom of the Jaguar: The Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal incorporating the Jaguar Research Centre.

Tailor Made Sample Itinerary No.2

Brazil Jaguar Tour

With the benefit of minimal internal travel, this exceptional private jaguar tour affords the best chance in all South America of spotting the elusive, powerful and majestic jaguar. In fact, during 2007, 2008 and 2009 Reef and Rainforest clients enjoyed over 200 jaguar sightings following this itinerary or something very similar (see our selection of photos and reports opposite).

This astonishing record is testament to the incredible natural richness of the Pantanal and the exceptional work of the Jaguar Research Centre. Please note that the Jaguar Research Centre DOES NOT feed jaguars and is located within the 270,000-acre Meeting of the Waters State Park where the feeding of jaguars is strictly forbidden. The success in jaguar sightings is due to the lack of jaguar hunting in this protected area, an unusually high density of jaguars and the hard work and dedication of an expert team of guides, boatmen and jaguar spotters. Throughout this tour you will be accompanied by a private English-speaking naturalist guide to ensure that you get the most out of each jaguar encounter.

Besides jaguar, the Pantanal also contains an astonishing amount of other fauna, much of which is extremely easy to see: commonly encountered species include tapir, giant river otter, capybara, caiman, a number of monkeys and a huge number of birds including hyacinth macaw and nesting jabiru stork. This is an intense itinerary for the serious wildlife enthusiast who deeply desires full immersion in one of the most prolific and rewarding wilderness regions to be found in the New World.

NB: This is a tailor-made itinerary and can be modified to fit your exact plans, e.g. by adding another location such as the Amazon, Atlantic rainforest, Iguacu Falls or Rio de Janeiro. Please call 01803 866965 to speak with one of our specialist tour consultants who will be delighted to design your ideal itinerary.

Read the Saturday Telegraph article about the Jaguar Research Centre and our jaguar watching programme: Jaguars in Brazil

Please also see our Escorted Jaguar Group Departures.

See the Jaguar Research Centre and the new Meeting-Of-The-Waters State Park for yourself:

Itinerary

Day

Depart London.
Arrive Sao Paulo. Connect with flight to Cuiaba. Tfr to Pantanal lodge. Perhaps climb canopy platform and/or use tapir hide. O/n Pantanal Wildlife Centre, FB.
Morning and afternoon guided wildlife excursions, by boat and/or vehicle. O/n Pantanal Wildlife Centre, FB.
Tfr to isolated riverboat and tented campsite. O/n Jaguar Research Centre, FB.
Day for searching for jaguar and other wildlife, mainly by boat. O/n Jaguar Research Centre, FB.
Day of further searching for jaguar. O/n Jaguar Research Centre, FB.
Tfr back to first lodge. Rest of day for wildlife viewing. O/n Pantanal Wildlife Centre, FB.
Tfr to Cuiaba. Fly to Sao Paulo. Connect with return flight.
Arrive London.

2010 Prices

TM2 - Kingdom of the Jaguar - The Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal
Date	Adult Price	Single Supp
01 Jan - 30 Jun 10	£3880	£280
01 Jul - 31 Aug 10	£3995	£280
01 Sep - 14 Dec 10	£3880	£280
15 Dec - 23 Dec 10	£3880	£280
24 Dec - 31 Dec 10	£3995	£280
Prices based on flights with TAM Brazilian Airlines.

Daphne Barbieri is an award winning amateur film maker, see her latest film hunting jaguars at the Jaguar Research Centre:

Read the latest report from our guides:

"During the morning of Friday the 12th of June 2009, we had to leave the camp in a hurry at 7:30 am because our boatman Nego saw the male Jaguar "Wilson" lying on a sand beach one bend downstream from the [Jaguar Research Centre] tented camp. Once we got there, he stood on the beach and suddenly, when he noticed us in a small Jaguar observation boat, he stood up, looked at us and roared and then went behind some bushes. We could still see him, and he kept watching us.

He did not appear calm and placid as he usually does (since June 2007, we have seen him more than 80 times on rivers near the camp). He may have been hungry that day. We waited for a while and there was no change. We decided to go a bit upstream to wait for him to come out into the open again. We stayed observing at the other side of the river, holding a tree branch to stay anchored on the opposite riverbank. Suddenly we heard a group of Giant Otters approaching us from upstream, swimming downstream in the direction of Wilson. It was a group of three otters, making sounds and communicating at us. The otters had not seen Wilson, and when they approached his sand beach, Wilson burst out of the bushes in a fraction of a second, jumping into the water to try to catch one of the otters. His attack failed, however, so he so he swam back to the beach and walked up onto the beach.

To our surprise, the otters did not flee, but rather stayed in the water right in front of Wilson, provoking him over and over again for 20-30 minutes. Finally the otters tired of this game and swam away. Even after the otters finally disappeared downriver, Wilson remained on the beach a while longer and then slipped behind some bushes. We did not see him again until late that same afternoon, this time on the banks of the Cuiabá River.

The [Reef and Rainforest Tours] guests were very excited by this great show and thanked the otters for the amazing spectacle."

Wilson and the Otters:

Wilson and the Otters

The latest client photos and feedback on the Jaguar Research Centre:





"We arrived at the Jaguar Research Centre after a one hour boat ride along the Cuiaba and Three Brothers rivers from the "end of the road". In this remote location we were accomodated in large tents with simple facilities - no electric light until evening so a head torch was essential for early morning starts! I learnt that some time ago 2 jaguars had been observed mating in front of the tent which I occupied on this trip, and wandering about unaccompanied after dark was not a good idea! On the afternoon after arrival we were cruising along the river in search of jaguars and other wildlife when we received a radio report that a jaguar had been spotted some distance away. The boatman quickly headed for the reported location while we hoped that this would be an at-least-one-hour jaguar whom we could still see when we got there. As it turned out, the individual concerned was Wilson, the alpha male in the area, and he was definitely a several-hour jaguar. He lay there in the grass at the top of the riverbank looking at us, yawned, peered down the bank, turned around, cleaned himself like a pussy cat and twitched his skin to dislodge biting insects. He really was a massive beast and quite unperturbed by us. We watched for a long time (you tend to lose your sense of time in such circumstances!) until the light was failing. We saw Wilson again the next day in another place, but then he was well hidden in the undergrowth. A great deal of other wildlife abounded in the area and there was never a dull moment, making the Jaguar Research Centre a great adventure overall."