More wildlife ramblings

I may not have seen those baby crocodiles, but baby caiman are cute as anything!

Within 30ft of walking out of the lodge this morning, Marcus had pointed out about ten species of birds, and made a clicking noise to call a giant male caiman out of one of the pools of water to come and say hello. He was about 3 ft away from me but thankfully (especially given their frequency around here), caiman are only around a third of the size of crocodiles (this was as big as they get...about 2m long) and a lot less likely to attack*.

In our two hour morning hike we saw so many types of bird it was crazy; storks, birds of prey, vultures, kingfishers, big ones, little ones - yep, I was definitely keeping up with the names, ahem. Most of the birds were out in the open wet grassland (savannah), which, given it is now ´draining season´ is punctuated by plenty of shallow pools, but not totally flooded. Then you have areas where the clumps of trees come together into forest, a good place to see mammals and the location of the hyacinth macaw nest that we went to visit. Sitting nearby were the two huge beautiful blue birds, happily squawking away on their branch. There are only 4000 left in the Pantanal and they are so lovely.

As you walk around you see trails left by the cattle, and also much smaller neater trails, maybe a hand-span across but worn smooth in the dirt. And then you look closer and you see the continuous march of leafcutter ants, carrying their impressive cargo like sails. You also cross trails of army ants, and those you jump across because they sting and it´s apparently pretty nasty (leafcutters will bite you but that isn´t so bad). Marcus said he´d seen people take off all their clothes in front of him after accidentally standing on a trail...and I promise you, if I get ants in my pants, I´m gonna do exactly the same!

We were lucky with mammals; saw a red brocket deer, the backside of an agouti**, a brown capuchin monkey and a couple of pantanal marmosets, and then - and yes I´m proud - I spotted a troupe of coati! So maybe I am getting better at this wildlife business after all :) Awww, coati are so gorgeous. They made runs between groups of trees, going single file, red bodies rushing across the grassland, some with their long ringed tails straight out behind and some holding them pointing up to the sky.

And yes, there is a caiman in every pool, or so it seems. We saw a couple of females with their tiny babies. Maybe 15cm long, with their little heads sticking out of the water and the rest of their bodies just visible underneath. Very cute, can I take one home? ;)


*Or so I´m told!
**Yeah, I´m hoping to see a little more of one later!