? ?

Wildlife photos by Rick Thompson The Chronicle - August 11, 2016 Speaking of Western Ecosystems, Inc. : Joyce in the Jungle By Joyce Miller Chronicle Freelance Editor’s note: Joyce Miller, Distin- guished Professor of Library Science at SUNY Adirondack, was a founding staff The Chronicle - August 11, 2016 The Chronicle member of The Chronicle in 1980 and was our first Arts Editor, among many respon- sibilities here over many years. She’s an ardent -watcher. Earlier this summer she went to Brazil. t Imagine the sound of European emer- gency sirens — you know, “EEEE-OOOOO! EEEE-OOOOO!” Then envision it per- formed by a phalanx of extremely hoarse, screechy bugles and crank the decibels way, way up. That’s the cacophonous pre- Hyacinth Macaws, the world’s largest dawn call of a flock of Chaco Chachalacas, parrot, are rare in the wild because of the long-tailed chicken-like in Brazil. The sound made our eyes pop open very caged bird trade and habitat destruction. quickly at 5:30 a.m. I visited western Brazil during the first two weeks of July with seven other bird- drove 150 miles south of Cuiabá to the ers on a trip with the birding tour com- Pantanal wetlands. The only road into the pany Field Guides, Inc. We were close to region is the Trans-Pantanal Highway, a the Bolivian border, smack dab in the cen- very dusty washboard dirt road almost ter of , 4,200 miles directly 100 miles long, patched together by more south of Glens Falls. We split our time than 120 ramshackle wooden bridges. The between two areas of Mato Grosso state: road finally dead-ends in Porto Jofre at the the Amazon River basin and the Pantanal Cuiabá River. wetlands. We were there to see birds and World’s largest tropical wetland other wildlife, including jaguars. The Pantanal, about 10 times bigger Flying from Newark to Sao Paolo to than the Everglades, is the world’s largest Cuiabá (coo-ya-BA) in central Brazil, we tropical wetlands, sprawling into then drove 180 miles north to the charm- and Paraguay. The area is flooded for three ing, family-run Garden of the Amazon months of the year, with up to 90% of the lodge. It’s located on the Rio Claro, which wetland under several feet of water. July is drains eventually into the Amazon River. the dry season, when water — and birds Out by 6:30 a.m., we’d bird for about — are concentrated in smaller areas. The 15 hours a day, taking breaks for lunch region is also popular with anglers. and dinner. We’d troll along placid riv- I was surprised to see that the Pantanal ers in small aluminum boats or walk on was made of forest, savanna and marsh, leathery-leaf-carpeted forest trails. In the not lush rainforest. It actually looked evening, we’d hike through the woods with somewhat like upstate New York woods, flashlights or take a jeep jaunt through but completely flat and with more palm fields looking for owls, , trees. Our guide explained that large rain- and other night-flying birds. forest trees and thick tropical vines don’t Saw 234 bird for first time thrive in a floodplain. Why bird in Brazil? It’s one of the most In the Pantanal, Hyacinth Macaws are Jaguars are the third largest bird-diverse areas of the world. I tallied the big birding attraction. They are the big cat, behind tigers and lions. 337 species over the two weeks. Of those, world’s largest parrot, 39 inches long. They 234 were “lifers,” species I observed for the are now rare in the wild, the population first time. I’ve now seen more than 2,500 of decimated by the caged-bird trade and the 10,000 species in the world. habitat destruction. These midnight-blue petite, curious Black-tailed Marmosets, deter them. What birder could resist seeing birds birds screeched and preened in a large tree near-monkeys that chirped like chicka- The Pantanal road is tough on vehicles. with wonderfully descriptive names like in the center of the Porto Jofre lodge prop- dees. Leafcutter Ants raced along forest Our dust-choked bus engine finally died 10 Screaming Piha, Southern Screamer, Toco erty. We spent our free time watching them trails in their own tiny two-lane highways. miles before we reached the end of the road Toucan, Great , Spangled Continga, as they ripped small branches off the tree, An Elephant the size of a man’s in the Pantanal. There’s certainly no cell Glittering-throated Emerald (a humming- investigated ant nests and chased each hand greeted us on the lodge sidewalk one phone service in this remote area, so Mar- bird), Snethlage’s Tody-tyrant and Sibilant other. evening. Though we didn’t see anacondas celo asked another group of birders head- Sirystes? We also saw the rare Cone-billed Another striking Pantanal bird is the and piranhas, we were assured that they ing the other way to stop at the next lodge Tanager, rediscovered recently by a team Jabiru stork, almost five feet tall with a were swimming under our boats. and call the Hotel Porto Jofre to send help. of birders including our guide, Marcelo very long, sloped black bill, bulbous red Piranha are the vultures of the river, our After a two-hour wait in the dark, a die- Padua. and black neck, and white feathers. guide Marcelo said; they eat dead things sel truck chugged up the road with three We regularly saw capybara, the world’s Jaguar-watching, too in the water. They don’t attack and devour burly lodge workers. We hauled ourselves largest rodent, looking like dog-sized This trip was also billed as a jaguar- live people, no matter what James Bond into the wood-slatted truck bed, they guinea pigs. They grazed after dark on the watching trip. Jaguars are the third larg- movies have depicted. tossed the luggage in, and we trundled the grass around the lodges. Marcelo called est “big cat” in the world, after tigers and On one twilight boat ride in the Pantanal, last few miles to the lodge. Our driver and them the local lawnmowers. lions. Stockier than leopards, they are we were treated to an air show by Greater a mechanic fixed the bus the next morn- Every day on the shores and in rivers, typically tawny tan with pattern of black and Lesser Bulldog , also known as ing. we’d see dozens of caiman, medium-sized rosettes. These endangered cats usually fishing bats. Dozens swirled high over our Just a fraction of the region is protected alligator cousins that can reach six to eight weigh from 100 to 250 pounds; females heads, snapping up . As it got dark- from development. Much of the forest in feet in length. They sunned themselves on are smaller than males. er, they swooped down around our boat, the Pantanal is now gone as large-scale riverbanks or floated quietly in the rivers, Their bite is powerful enough to crush a using echolocation and their hind claws to commercial agriculture moves in. We saw slowly sinking into the murky river as our turtle shell. Originally found as far north snag small fish from the surface. hundreds of Brahman cattle and endless boat approached. They require less than a as the Grand Canyon, they’re now found in Mosquitoes no problem in dry season fields of cotton, soybeans, corn and sugar pound of fish a day, so they spend most of cane. Central and South America. Caiman and Because it was the dry winter season, their time getting warm. Fortunately, the Southern Cross constel- capybaras are their frequent prey. mosquitoes were not a big problem. More After five days in the Amazon basin, we From boats on the Pantanal’s Cuiabá lation and Milky Way were still brilliant bothersome were seed ticks, the size of a in the Southern Hemisphere night sky: no River, we saw five jaguars. One day, we poppy seed, but they don’t carry disease. watched a pair of adolescent siblings that light pollution there yet. We sprayed clothes before the trip with per- As Brazil gears up for the Olympics were hunting together for their first year methrin, dusted ourselves with sublimed on their own, and a large female who oc- with its glitz and security concerns, I’ll be sulfur powder, and spritzed unscented thinking of the other Brazil: quiet, beauti- casionally tried to pounce on caiman as picaridin repellent on ourselves to she strolled along the riverbank. When ful and very wild. she walked in tall riverside grass, shriek- ing birds shot out of the grass and caiman slid into the water. Another day, we saw a mother trailed by a cub. We were warned not to walk around the lodge property at night: security cam- eras have photographed jaguars walking around the grounds. For “restroom” stops during the six-hour boat rides, our guide would jump ashore first to inspect the area for signs of jaguars and as well as African- ized bee swarms. On our morning walks on the forest trails, we noticed signs of nocturnal in the soft dirt: tracks left by tapirs, giant anteaters, centipedes — and jaguars. I measured one jaguar print to be about 4½ inches in diameter. Swarms of brilliant butterflies We saw other wildlife, too. In the Ama- Joyce Miller, on her cottage zon basin, we were thrilled to find swarms Blue-and-yellow balcony at the Garden of the Ama- of brilliant orange, yellow, blue, green, and zebra-striped butterflies sipping up miner- Macaw in flight zon lodge in the Amazon River basin. als from mud puddles. We saw Giant Ot- ters, Black Howler Monkeys and several