Discover Brazil's Most Spectacular Wildlife

Often called the world's largest wetland, the Pantanal region of southwestern Brazil (and extending into Bolivia and Paraguay) is one of the best places in South America to view wildlife. Eighty percent of the massive Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, which helps foster breathtaking biodiversity. Yet the relative openness of the country makes it much easier to see animals than the dense rain forest of the Amazon basin.

Capuchin monkeys can be found in many habitats in much of Central and South America. They got their name after 15th-century explorers thought their fur resembled monk's garb. Like most monks, the intelligent monkeys live in groups (usually from 10 to 35). They are highly social and hierarchical, occasionally warring with other bands over territory. They spend most of their time in the trees (often swinging from limb to limb), and eat a very diverse omnivorous diet. Their tails are roughly as long as the rest of their body. They are highly expressive and one can easily spend hours watching their playful antics and sophisticated interactions.

These truly are Rodents of Unusual Size, and it's hard to get tired of watching them. Capybaras are the world's largest rodents, weighing up to 140 pounds. Although they have squirrel-like faces, they lack tails and have slightly webbed feet. They are herbivores that spend a lot of time in shallow water, where they munch on aquatic plants. Their back legs are slightly longer than their front legs. Capybaras live in groups and are great swimmers.

A symbol of the Pantanal region, the pink trumpet trees (Tabebuia impetiginosa and T. heptaphyla) impart explosions of color during the dry season (roughly late summer and early fall in North America). They are in the same botanical family as the area's yellow and white trumpet trees, which normally have staggered flowering schedules. However, the unusually wet Brazilian winter made for more overlap in 2009, lighting up the horizon for visitors.

The giant anteater is one strange looking animal. According to our guide, the massive tail is used "like a blanket," to keep the animal warm and hidden from predators, especially jaguars. Anteaters walk on their claws, which are handy for breaking open hard termite mounds or digging for ants. Although anteaters can snarf up 30,000 insects a day, they try never to swallow a whole colony at once, preferring to conserve the resource for future harvesting.

The large marsh deer is a common sight in the Pantanal, and more often than not is accompanied by birds riding on its back, taking advantage of the extra set of eyes.

Although piranhas look like fearsome predators, they are rarely a threat to human beings or other large animals (although it's said that native people sometimes show the scars of bites). There are believed to be 30 some species, distributed throughout much of South America. Many are fished for recreation and food. In fact, piranha soup is quite tasty! I never hauled one in (they kept stealing my bait!), although several members of my group got lucky, as my photo proves.

The burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia) is found throughout much of the Americas, and has been making a gradual comeback thanks to protection efforts. They can be found in the grasslands on the margins of the Pantanal, where prey is abundant.

Although it resembles a pig, the Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) is only distantly related. For one thing, as our guide pointed out, peccaries lack tails. The collared peccary is widely distributed across Latin America, on up into the southwestern U.S., where it is often known as the javelina (though the common name can be confusing, since it is also applied to other species).

Coati are found in much of Latin America, and are known by the delightful names hog-nosed coons, snookum bears and Brazilian aardvarks. Not surprisingly, they are in the same family as raccoons, though they tend to be active during the day. South American coatis (Nasua nasua) tend to roam in small groups. They had faced considerable hunting pressure but are protected in Brazil.

The crested caracara (Polyoris plancus) is a common site on the margins of the Pantanal, where it is a carrion and opportunistic feeder that often out competes vultures. Caracara do well in disturbed habitat and near people, and their numbers are rising. Two closely related species remain, while their "cousin" species, the Guadalupe caracara, is one of the few species that was intentionally eradicated by human beings. In the late 1800s goatherds on the Mexican island that bears its name hunted and poisoned the bird into oblivion, since they unjustly feared for the safety of young livestock. At least one other species went extinct as a result.

Recognize these colorful fruits? The top parts contain the cashew nuts familiar throughout the world. The lower part of the fruit is also edible, and is commonly made into a fresh juice (it is a bit nutty tasting). Many animals consume the fleshy part of the fruit, tossing the hard "nut" part on the ground as if it were garbage (a boon to native people and anyone else walking through the forest).

The colorful greater kiskadee, (Pitangus sulphuratus), looks for food at the water's edge.

Bearing considerable resemblance to a North American trout, the dourado (Salminus maxillosus) is a key predator in Brazil's waterways. The fish is also good eating, and is prized by indigenous peoples and local fishermen.

A male bare-faced curassow (Crax fasciolata) darts into the underbrush along a rural road. Vaguely turkey like, with gorgeous plumage, the currassow had been heavily hunted. But with protections in place, its numbers are rising in the Pantanal. The male makes a distinctive low, woofing call to the female, which is a gorgeous speckled brown.

Related to emus and ostriches, the greater rhea (Rhea americana) is the largest living bird in the Western hemisphere. The flightless giants are also among the most prehistoric. They inhabit grassland, savanna and scrub forest, and can be seen in drier parts of the Pantanal. They had been heavily hunted, especially to collect their beautiful feathers for Carnival costumes, but protections have increased. The IUCN lists rheas as "near threatened." In Portugese they are known as ema.

Greater rheas are unusual among animals in that the males are solely responsible for tending the nests and bringing up the young. They often travel in small family groups.

Although they look fearsome, the Pantanal caiman (Caiman yacare) is rarely dangerous to people. They eat mostly fish, as well as mollusks, crustaceans, amphibians, other reptiles (our group saw one with a tegu lizard in its mouth) and occasionally birds or mammals (especially capybaras). They grow throughout their lives and reach about 10-feet long.

Just a few years ago caiman were almost entirely eradicated from the Pantanal, thanks to hunters who shone their flashlights over water at night, then took shots at the pairs of eyes caught as reflections. The caiman were legally protected, but according to our guide, the poaching only stopped after farmers started raising the animals in pens. Better leather could be harvested from farmed caiman, and the resulting price drop made hunting unattractive.

The breathtaking hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is the world's largest flying parrot. It is endangered, although preservation efforts have made headway, particularly in the Pantanal. An intelligent, expressive, social bird, hyacinth macaws have long been captured for the pet trade, which has decreased their numbers along with habitat loss.