After a long and exhausting trip, including lost luggage (still!) and delayed flights we finally arrived last night at Porto Jofre in the Pantanal. We are kindly hosted by Panthera.org in their lovely accommodation. I couldn’t wait for first light, and my first hour of birding in Latin America was indeed mind-blowing. All those new […]
Tag: Brazil
Eight bird species are first confirmed avian extinctions this decade
Spix’s macaw, a brilliant blue species of Brazilian parrot that starred in the children’s animation Rio, has become extinct this century, according to a new assessment of endangered birds. The macaw is one of eight species, including the poo-uli, the Pernambuco pygmy-owl and the cryptic treehunter, that can be added to the growing list of […]
Video: Two Hungry Jaguars Are No Match for This Plucky Otter
PORTE JOFRE, PANTANAL, BRAZIL – On a particularly hot afternoon last October, two jaguar sisters named Medrosa and Jaju went down to the river to drink. But before they had reached the waters of the Corixo Negro, a giant otter loudly voiced its displeasure. A top predator, the river otter is known to some local […]
Jaguars killed for fangs to supply growing Chinese medicine trade
Conservationists who have uncovered a growing illegal trade in jaguar fangs in South America are linking it to Chinese construction projects that could be threatening wildlife globally. Experts say major Chinese power plant, road and rail works in developing nations are key stimulants of illicit trade in the skins, bones and horns of endangered animals. […]
Saving Bristly and his fourteen companions from extinction
Stresemann’s Bristlefront Merulaxis stresemanni: a long-tailed bird with distinctive forehead bristles, a rufous rump, a musical whistle song, seen perhaps eating frogs and insects, and with a tennis-ball-sized tunnel for its nest. Spotted a handful of times since its rediscovery in Brazil’s Atlantic forest in 1995, that’s about all we know of this unique bird. […]
Wildlife catastrophe at Amazon dam a warning for future Tapajós dams
When the Balbina Dam was completed in 1986, it flooded primary forest in the state of Amazonas along Brazil’s Uatumã River, forming a massive reservoir speckled by 3,546 flood-induced islands. In 1990, the Reserva Biológica (REBIO) do Uatumã was established, protecting the entire 443,700 hectare (109,6427 acre) reservoir, dubbed Balbina Lake, along with the adjacent […]
Damming the Amazon: new hydropower projects put river dolphins at risk
A dam-building boom is underway in the Amazon. More than 400 hydroelectric dams are in operation, being built, or planned for the river’s headwaters and basin. Scientists know that tropical dams disrupt water flow and nutrient deposition, with negative consequences for aquatic animals, especially migratory species. But little detailed knowledge exists as to the impacts […]
The Maned wolf: saving South America’s unfortunately-named canid
The Maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is by all accounts a bizarre creature. Nicknamed a “fox on stilts,” it is perhaps best known for its once-heard-never-forgotten “roar-bark.” A single look at this strange, gangly and rather scruffy creature, with its bobbing gait and bat-like ears — with the body of a wolf, face of a fox, […]