I spent five days on the Cuiabá River and its tributaries searching for jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal. In that time, I only got lucky on a single morning, but on that morning I saw four different jags within a three hour period. This is the first of the sightings. In the top photo, green ibis are in the foreground as the jaguar emerged from the woods and walked slowly across the beach. She wasn’t there for long, and as my guide tried to maneuver the boat closer, she casually looked up at us before ducking back into the forest.

When you don’t see them in relation to an adult, baby giant river otters look a lot like the regular river otters we get in the United States. They’re similar in size, and haven’t yet developed the characteristic yellow splotches on their chests. The above baby otter was playing with a few of its siblings until the mother came along (below) and ushered them further down the riverbank.

From parakeets to macaws, there are many different shapes, sizes and colors of parrots in Brazil. Here are just three of the many that I saw. The first is a jandaya parakeet, the second a blue fronted parrot and the third a yellow chevroned parakeet. There’s often confusion as to the difference between a parrot and a parakeet when, in fact, parakeets are simply a large group of different parrots that are small in size and have long tails. A parrot, by definition, is any bird with a hooked bill and on each foot two toes facing forward and two back. Glad we cleared this up.

Here’s another look at the Brazilian maned wolf, this time with a wider angle lens and dual flash set up. I also used a graduated neutral density filter to bring out the last remaining color in the clouds before it got dark. For most of the photos I took of the wolf, I was laying on the ground to get the low angle perspective.

Green iguanas can grow to be six and a half feet in length and weigh more than 20 pounds. This one, photographed in northern Brazil, seemed to be about that size.

A couple weeks ago I posted a tufted eared marmoset. This one is called a black tailed marmoset. Not the most attractive animal in the world, but it does have its charms.

A Brazilian guinea pig, snacking on a few dropped sweet potatoes. These guys are related to, but not the same as, the domesticated guinea pigs that people keep as pets.

Today’s photo of the day is actually 5 photos. More specifically, five different species of tanager, all photographed in pretty much the same spot in northern Brazil. The first is a silver-beaked tanager, followed by a scarlet throated tanager, sayaca tanager, palm tanager, and hepatic tanager. There are thought to be about 240 species of tanager, all living in the Americas, mostly in the tropics, and usually very brightly colored.

This guy was the alpha male of a troop of tufted capuchins that I came across in northeastern Brazil. These are the “Einstein monkeys” you may have seen featured on the BBC special “Life.” They are believed to be the most intelligent of the new world monkeys because of their complex use of tools. More on the tool use in a future post, but for now let’s just talk about that nice hat. Looks a bit like the head gear I see on Hasidic jews walking around Williamsburg on the weekends. Google shtreimel and you’ll see what I mean.