And therein lies the beauty of the capybara — while some dismiss it as a gigantic rat, others can appreciate its refined social etiquette. This one here proving the point by covering it’s mouth before sneezing. For those who weren’t paying attention the last time I posted a capybara, they are the world’s largest rodent, living throughout much of South America. This one was photographed in the Pantanal of Brazil.

It’s pretty much impossible to go the Pantanal of Brazil and not see yacaré caiman. They’re everywhere. This one was just a little guy, but they can eventually grow to be about 10 feet in length (still quite small for a crocodilian species). Due to their smaller size, they are a favorite prey of jaguars and anaconda — as opposed to the 14 foot long black caiman.

With all the mammals I’ve been posting lately, thought it was time for a nice bird. This is a campo troupial, also known as a campo oriole. They were fairly common around the lodges in the Pantanal of Brazil, but seemed a little more timid than all the tanagers and they would only approach the fruiting trees to grab a bite when other birds weren’t around. Check out the campo troupial’s song below:

This one really gives a sense of how tall these guys are (four feet from ground to shoulder), the tallest canine in the Americas. Although it looks more like a fox, it’s actually a wolf, photographed in a remote area of northeastern Brazil.

A young tufted capuchin monkey reacts with surprise — to what he’s acting with surprise I couldn’t tell you. These are the tool using “Einstein” monkeys of Piaui state in northeastern Brazil.

Here’s another photo of the day because, well, I don’t have anything better to do now that my Yellowstone flight was cancelled yet again — apparently you need more than 48 hours of sunshine and clear skies in New York before airports can reopen after a snowstorm.  Delta has assured me, however, that they can get me on a flight on Saturday that will get me to Yellowstone in plenty of time to make my return flight home a few hours later on Sunday. But enough of that. For today’s photo(s), I wanted to send a species that I’ve never posted before. This master of camouflage is called a great potoo and it was photographed in Brazil. You can see from the first shot that this nocturnal bird does a great job of impersonating a stumpy branch while it sleeps during the day. In the close up, you can see the potoo’s eye opened just a bit as it reacts to my camera clicking below. Potoos are very strange looking creatures, reminding me of a Sesame Street character.

A couple of crested caracaras sharing a catfish dinner. This one was taken in the Pantanal of Brazil.

Capybaras are so common in the Pantanal of Brazil that you tend to take them for granted. Or maybe you take them for granted because they’re the world’s largest rodent. Either way, here’s  a mother with two babies.

Here’s another one of the baby white tufted ear marmosets that I photographed in northeastern Brazil. There’s nothing in this picture to give perspective of size, but these guys are very small — about the size of a squirrel.

These giant river otters look like they’re up to something a bit scandalous. I liked the way you can see the enormous size of the webbed hand on the one on the right. They were actually just grooming each other after a meal.

PS: This will be last post for a week as I head to extreme northern Manitoba Canada in search of polar bears. See you when I get back.