Nerves loop-de-looped in my stomach as the jaguar slinked toward a herd of capybaras. The rodents, a loveable species with guinea pig traits and mini-horse statures, lazed by the watering hole without a care in the world. Up in our safari truck, I could barely breathe.
Then it happened. The jaguar lunged; the capybaras barked a warning, then zipped into the water. The big cat chased and chased before finally giving up.
Only after the jaguar retreated, leaving the rodent herd safe, could I finally exhale and release the tension. I’ve been fortunate to catch this kind of animal kingdom action on dozens of African safari drives, from the kopje-dotted plains of Tanzania’s Serengeti to the flooded grasslands of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Yet this was different.
This morning’s Planet Earth -level drama unfolded in a lesser-known yet budding safari getaway: Brazil. Many visit South America’s largest country for its scenic beaches and hopping Carnival . But in recent years, the wildlife-rich country—home to 20 percent of the world’s biodiversity—has climbed the ranks to top safari bucket lists, too.
Laura Burdett-Munns, managing director for Journeysmiths , the luxury travel specialists I visited Brazil with, predicts this interest will only grow. “I fully expect to see the number of safari-goers to Brazil increase in the next five to 10 years,” she says, nothing these trips can play a critical role in protecting at-risk species and ecosystems. “Over the last decade, we have seen incredible organizations come together in Brazil to drive sustainable wildlife tourism forward, and this work continues to gain momentum.
” Conservation is built into the Brazil safari experience, and few places exemplify the dedication to responsible wildlife watching like the Pantanal, the setting for that jaguar-versus-capybara showdown. The Pantanal, one of Earth’s largest tropical wetlands, covers a North Dakota-sized swath of South America, spilling from Brazil into pockets of Bolivia and Paraguay. It’s a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with millions of caimans, 650 bird species, and one of the world’s highest densities of jaguars.
A decade-long ecotourism project has transformed one particular Pantanal getaway, the Caiman Ecological Refuge, into arguably the best perch on the planet to spot the elusive big cats. Brazilian reserve owner and environmentalist Roberto Klabin modeled Caiman’s safari experience after the ecotourism offerings in Sabi Sand Nature Reserve in South Africa. He spent much of his childhood in the region, and inherited a large chunk of his family’s Pantanal ranchland, located in the state of Mato Grosso du Sol, in the 1980s.
“At the time, there was no concept of ecotourism,” he says. He transformed it into a 131,000-acre reserve that’s now a patchwork of government-protected nature preserves, land for cattle raising (a major industry for the region), and the 18-suite Casa Caiman —my home away from home for three surreal safari days. The lodge’s Edenic (and fenced-in) grounds were built around relaxation, with hammocks and loungers, private patios, a central fireplace room, and a bay-view swimming pool.
That said, with hyacinth blue macaws feeding onsite and capybaras grazing just beyond the fence, I spent most of my downtime on Casa Caiman’s walking paths, searching for critters while working off that second helping of pão de queijo (cheese bread) from lunch. During Caiman’s early days, Klabin saw few if any jaguars. In 2011, he partnered with conservation nonprofit Onçafari (pronounced: on safari), a Brazilian NGO that’s spent the past decade habituating and studying the big cats, including tracking their movements via GPS and VHF collars.
These days, nearly 100 percent of guests spot at least one jaguar during their stay. I saw half a dozen, along with giant anteaters, caimans, marsh deer, macaws, peccaries, and, of course, those charming capybara. The Caiman experience isn’t just about seeing animals, though.
Guests join Onçafari conservationists on safari drives to learn about the wildlife preservation strategies firsthand. “For people interested in wildlife conservation, Brazil offers an unparalleled opportunity to see early conservation in action,” says Burdett-Munns. “To go behind the scenes with the people who are fighting to protect natural habitats and the wildlife that lives there is fascinating and such a privilege.
” Naturally habituating the jaguars to safari cruisers—which is not about taming the cats, but keeping them wild and free, yet also comfortable around the vehicles—does more than ensure sightings. It gives scientists unparalleled access to research the elusive cats, which are considered near-threatened by the IUCN, largely due to poaching for skin and killing by local communities. Ecotourism demonstrates that “jaguars can be more valuable alive than dead,” says Lilian Rampim, a biologist and operations coordinator for Onçafari’s Caiman base, noting that the property offers employment for women, who rarely have work opportunities in cattle raising.
“That’s the beauty of ecotourism,” she says. “It gives opportunity for all people.” Following its success in the Pantanal, Onçafari expanded its footprint to an increasingly threatened but critically important biome, the Cerrado, a mosaic of grasslands and forests considered the outback of Brazil.
Over 10,000 species—around 5 percent of the world’s animals and plants—inhabit the 772,000-square-mile Cerrado. Not only is it Earth’s most biodiverse savanna, it’s also critical to the future of our planet. The Cerrado stores roughly 35 tons of carbon per acre in its soil and root system, according to the WWF .
Yet industrial agriculture, largely for soybeans, has destroyed more than 60 percent of the Cerrado wilderness. Onçafari’s work here focuses on habituating and studying the nearly threatened maned wolf, a tall canid nicknamed a “fox on stilts” that remains largely under-researched, according to Chiara Bortolotto, an Onçafari guide and biologist from the Cerrado-based city of Brasília. Bortolotto and her team are in a race against time as agriculture increasingly wipes the maned wolf’s already shrinking habitat.
The NGO operates out of Fazenda Trijunção—a ranch that, like Caiman, centers on conservation and sustainability. It’s a roughly 82,000-acre amalgam of fruit tree groves, sustainable farmlands, and preserved savanna neighboring Grande Sertão Veredas National Park. Tucked away in the reserve is Pousada Trijunção , a boutique seven-room lodge with spacious suites, authentic Brazilian fare (don’t miss another cheese pastry favorite, the waffle de pão de queijo), and plenty of outdoor lounge space to watch the macaws, pint-sized marmosets, and guinea pigs pass to and fro.
Active travelers enjoy a bevy of experiences at Pousada Trijunção, including not only safaris, but fat-bike trips, night boat rides to see caimans and owls, wild swimming, paddling, and birding hikes with local ornithologists. Perhaps the greatest adventure, though, was our search for the maned wolf. We joined Bortolotto on twice-daily outings to find one particular maned wolf, Savanna, a three-year-old female recently collared by Onçafari.
In the future, Journeysmiths plans to collaborate with Pousada Trijunção for first-of-its-kind conservation experiences like collaring maned wolves, too. We scoured and scoured the reserve for Savanna in the pre-dawn and dusk hours, following the GPS tracker in an attempt to spot her through the dense scrub. While some 60 percent of guests now see maned wolves at Pousada Trijunção, shy Savanna never showed herself—and I was perfectly fine with that.
A safari in Brazil isn’t as established as, say, the Serengeti or Okavango Delta. Nothing is guaranteed, and to me, that’s largely the allure. Brazil safaris aren’t about ticking every box on a safari checklist.
They’re about raw, uncharted adventure, embracing the unexpected, and being part of an emerging ecotourism movement that could truly make a difference. Editor’s note: Caiman will be closed from August through September 2024 to help the reserve’s flora and fauna recover from severe wildfires; learn more and support Onçafari’s rehabilitation work here ..
