Winter 2009 - Lima to Montevideo - Birding Trip Report - Part 9 of many - Cuiaba and the north Pantanal Home » Forums » Birding » Trip Reports

We left Cacoal for Cuiaba, an access point to the northern part
of the Pantanal, the flooded wetland in Brazil famous for wildlife
viewing. The Pantanal, like 'Los Llanos' in Venezuela, goes through an
extremely wet season and an extrelely dry season, and we were about
one month before the peak of the wet season.

The bus ride passed through vast agricultural fields, including soy
fields often implicated in rainforest destruction. From time to time
we passed a large factory/warehouse. At the West Palm Beach Zoo
animal show they bring out a Red-legged Seriema, and explain that Brazilian
farmers like this bird because it eats snakes and other pests, and
with it's loud call can warn the farmer of threats like fire or wild
animals. I certainly had a different picture in my mind when I saw
two Seriema resting on a post in front a cleared field stretching many
square kilometers, as far as the eye could see, and no farmer in sight.

Cuiaba is a fast growing city and the capital of the Mato Grosso
State. Parque Mãe Bonifácia is a great city
park of about 100 hectacres (my guess) of forest with walking trails.
Outside is a great poster encouraging the stoppage of the fires that
are destroying the rainforest. We visited the park on a Saturday
afternoon, and it was almost deserted. Again, I concluded Brazilians
don't seem too interested in their natural environment. Strangely,
after about 5:00 PM the park did fill up just a bit. The park is a
great place to see the common birds of the region such as the
Rufous-bellied Thrush, Squirrel Cuckoo, Grey Saltator, Red-crested
Finch, and the Picazuro Pigeon.

We also visited the University Zoo. There is a fenced in pond with a number of
waterfowl like the Southern Crested Screamer. I was told during the week
I could have gotten access for photography. The most interesting, and saddest
unfortunately, part of the zoo is the bird of prey section. Next to all of the
plaques commemorating the officials who created that part of the zoo are some
of the rarest and most spectacular birds in South America, including a Crested
Eagle and a Harpy Eagle. We asked why the birds were caged; were they injured?
But the attendant was puzzled by our questions and thought it was perfectly normal
for those birds to be in cages.

The tour companies to the Pantanal are not cheap, compared to Campo
Grande in the south, as we learned later. We met with Carlos of
ecoexplorer.com.br, a friendly trilingual Peruvian guide, who gave us
a fair price for a personally guided three day tour. However we
decided to wing it, and made plans to go to Poconé, the last town before
the Pantanal. We caught a bus which took us about two hours. Still
a lot of natural areas on this ride, but later we met an old man who
told us he remembered a time when it took two days to get from Cuiaba
to Pocone.

The Trans-Pantanal highway is an unfinished dirt highway that goes
maybe 50 kilometers (guess) into the Pantanal. There are many ranches
and eco-lodges, but in Pocone we found we had lost our phone card and
information. So we met a very old cab driver who had lived in Pocone
his entire life. He recommended Posada Rio Claro and charged us $100
Real to take us there. We were very happy with the Posada, and were
lucky to get some good local advice.

Alhough there are over 600 birds recorded in the Pantanal, most of the lodges
have a list of about 300. For those who haven't been outside of the US,
or even have only been to Costa Rica, it is hard to explain places like
the Pantanal. On the drive to the lodge it seemed that almost every post
had an interesting bird, like the Chaco Chachalaca, Snail Kite, Black-collared
Hawk, Plumbeous Ibis, Cocoi Heron. Even the Bare-faced Curassow was seen
from the car.

The first thing we noticed at the Posada was the yellow water. It was filtered from
the river, and everyone drank it The price includes meals, but drinks are separate,
and they don't have large bottles of water. And it is very hot. So... the Internet
worked on two out of four days, and I could not find anything about they yellow water,
except for a Chinese river with yellow sediment of some sort. Well, eventually I was
so thirsty I drank it, and I am still here.

One day I'll write more details about the various birds seen here. Probably
a dozen species visited just the feeder over the course of three days, including
Nanday Parakeets, Chaco Chachalaca, Baywings, Purplish Jays, and others. Only
three Hyacinth Macaws were seen, flying far overhead.

We saw two Grey Foxes, Spectacled Caimans, and members of our group saw a Jaguar on a boat trip.
The Jaguar, we were told, had rebounded from about 50 to about 500 because
it was now protected from hunting, but I am guessing those numbers are wild
guesses.

Overall I was very happy with my visit to the Pantanal. The environmental
destruction I'd seen everywhere else in Brazil didn't seem to be happening here. The reality
is apparently different. The Hyacinth Macaw is endangered because the trees it uses for nesting
are being cut. There is very little public land in the Pantanal, and eco-tourism and hard-to-enforce hunting and logging regulations can only do so much.