Kingdom of the Jaguar: The Wildlife of Brazil's Pantanal incorporating the SouthWild Jaguar Camp.

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, since 2007 Reef and Rainforest clients have enjoyed over 300 jaguar sightings when following this itinerary or something very similar (see our selection of photos and reports opposite).

2010 proved to be our best year yet with 100% of Reef and Rainforest clients seeing jaguars well. All of these clients also saw giant river otters and most also encountered tapirs in addition to other Pantanal favourites such as capybara, caiman, hyacinth macaws, toco toucans, jabiru storks, monkeys, peccaries and deer.

The astonishing record of jaguar sightings is testament to the incredible natural richness of the Pantanal and the expertise of the SouthWild Jaguar Camp (formally the Jaguar Research Centre). This exceptional tented camp (formally a series of houseboats) is located between a private jaguar reserve and the recently created 270,000-acre Meeting of the Waters State Park where a ban on hunting has led to an unusually high density of habituated jaguars. The camp has a dedicated team of guides, boatmen and jaguar spotters ensuring the very best jaguar sightings for its guests.

Accompanied by a private English-speaking naturalist guide to ensure that you get the most out of each jaguar encounter, 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 SouthWild Jaguar Camp (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 SouthWild Pantanal (Pantanal Wildlife Centre), FB.
Morning and afternoon guided wildlife excursions, by boat and/or vehicle. O/n SouthWild Pantanal (Pantanal Wildlife Centre), FB.
Tfr to jaguar camp. O/n SouthWild Jaguar Camp (Jaguar Research Centre), FB.
Day for searching for jaguar and other wildlife, mainly by boat. O/n SouthWild Jaguar Camp (Jaguar Research Centre), FB.
Day of further searching for jaguar. O/n SouthWild Jaguar Camp (Jaguar Research Centre), FB.
Tfr back to first lodge. Rest of day for wildlife viewing. O/n SouthWild Pantanal (Pantanal Wildlife Centre), FB.
Tfr to Cuiaba. Fly to Sao Paulo. Connect with return flight.
Arrive London.

2012 Prices

From £4482 per person sharing double/twin rooms and including international flights.

Please contact us for a definitive quote based on your requirements.

NB: Flights are based on TAM Brazilian Airlines from London. We can quote based on any airline and will be pleased to discuss the options.

THE MEANING OF TAILOR MADE

Our tailor-made tours offer full date flexibility and freedom of choice regarding locations and content (subject to logistics and availability). The above itinerary is a good example of what is possible but can be altered and/or extended to suit your individual preferences. Please contact us by email or telephone to discuss your requirements and one of our friendly and expert travel consultants will be pleased to design your perfect itinerary.

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

Read a 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 SouthWild Jaguar Camp (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."