South America's Big Cats

Naturetrek Tour Report 3 – 17 October 2015

Yacare Caiman Hyacinth Macaw

Report compiled by Nick Acheson Images courtesy of Helen Pinchin

Naturetrek Mingledown Barn Wolf's Lane Chawton Alton Hampshire GU34 3HJ UK T: +44 (0)1962 733051 E: [email protected] W: www.naturetrek.co.uk

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

Tour Participants: Nick Acheson (Leader), Cristofer de la Rivera (Chile) Naun Silva (Brazil) With 12 Naturetrek clients

Day 1 Saturday 3rd October

In flight to South America

Day 2 Sunday 4th October

Inevitably, when one visits the southernmost reaches of the world’s inhabited continents, it takes a while to get there. Today (and the day before) it took us a while to reach Punta Arenas, in the far south of South America, via São Paulo and Santiago de Chile. Arriving in Punta Arenas we were met by Cris, our ever-smiling, always knowledgeable guide, naturalist and friend, and by Sergio our equally friendly, helpful driver.

Day 3 Monday 5th October

This morning our task was to travel north from Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine, through Patagonian grassland peopled by sheep, Guanacos, Darwin’s Rheas, Upland and Ashy-headed Geese and Black-faced Ibis. We stopped to admire our first Andean Condors, looping on great wings over the road, to watch Austral Negritos hopping through the pampa, and to admire a flotilla of Black-necked Swans on the sea, surrounded by Kelp, Dolphin and Brown-hooded Gulls.

Words like stunning and amazing are used far too often in these sorts of reports; but the location of our lodge on Lake Pehoé in Torres del Paine is quite simply stunning. The spectacular peaks of this breath-taking park tower above an iris-blue lake and on a craggy island sits a small hotel run by the most embarrassingly friendly and helpful young men. It was, quite simply, an idyllic place to stay.

But we were not here for idyll. We were here for Pumas. So in the afternoon we saw Pumas. Critical in our Puma-watching (spoiler alert: our completely ridiculously amazing Puma-watching) was José (famously also known as Wayaja). He is a short, slight man with silvering hair and a neat moustache. For twenty-five years he has watched the pumas of Torres del Paine, his swift brown eyes darting across the landscape, and for eighteen years he has been a park guard here. He knows the pumas of the park better than anyone. It might be no exaggeration to say that he knows pumas better than anyone else in the world.

José found our first Puma this evening, lying by the shore of a pool. It quickly became clear that another was here too, nestled in scrub at the base of the hill behind. Nearby was their Guanaco kill. It seemed at first that these were a courting pair, though when we saw them again later – and much better – José realised they were in fact a mother and her fully-grown cub. Not knowing that the Puma-watching would be for four days as extraordinary and uplifting as the landscape of Torres del Paine, we returned to our beautiful lodge delighted and enchanted by our first observation of this gorgeous cat.

I had my own reason to be delighted and enchanted by these Pumas, for seeing them (complexities of cat taxonomy aside) I completed the traditional seven big cats on my Big Cat Quest in 2015.

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

Day 4 Tuesday 6th October

Many of you came from the UK having seen the very recent BBC film which featured a mother Puma and two cubs. It was our very own José who guided the BBC crew to the Pumas, as he has led, guided and been filmed by innumerable crews over his many years in the park. It was one of his sons, also both expert trackers, who first saw these cubs, the offspring of the Laguna Larga female. Since then José and his family have seen them many times.

This morning spoke of the Patagonian spring. The sun was bright and, as there was no wind, the snow-covered mountains were divinely reflected in the meltwater lakes of this beauteous place. There were Upland Geese by the roadside and White-tufted Grebes disturbing the zen-calm water with their dives.

We visited Laguna Amarga, the main park entrance and one of the best sites for seeing Pumas. A Chilean Flicker clung to the bottom of a window and tapped its reflection; a Chilean swallow - arriving this far south for the coming spring - crouched on a park office roof; on the black beaches of the river below there were Chiloé wigeon; but we saw no Puma.

Breakfast time: it is only so long that even the most dedicated group can cope with the cold without caffeine and calories. As we reached Laguna Larga, the Cuernos del Paine reflected in painful perfection in its waters, José's body language, ever relaxed and affable, became in a moment focused and taut. 'Puma', he said and there on a slope was a stretched buffy form in the early sun. We raised binoculars; there were two; three, one clearly a well grown cub. They slipped over the hill’s brow and we followed. Crossing the hillside there we saw a mother Puma and her two cubs of more than a year, a large male and a slight female: the very cubs José had found for the BBC, with whom most of you had fallen in love just days before in the UK.

These Pumas sat for a while, glowing in the gilt morning light. They moved and, from above, a guanaco whinnied in alarm again and again. Into the valley they went, one of the cubs breaking into chase as they disappeared. A Hare (European, introduced) bolted from the valley towards us. The cub had been playing at hunting.

Then this afternoon – barely credibly - we saw six new Pumas, bringing the total of individual Pumas seen today to eight, and between today and yesterday to ten. By any standard, that's just ridiculous.

This afternoon's Pumas, each of them known personally to José, were:

The Sarmiento female and her two cubs of two years. How José saw the face of the first cub peering out from dense scrub as we sped along the road is a mystery to us all. But he did, and here were two fat, sleek cubs, playing together. We took to a hill above them for a better view. Gradually they drifted away, slinking through the bushes and sometimes skipping over one another in lithe leaps. Unbeknown to us (though we were aware she must be nearby), their mother had stayed much closer to us, shielding her cubs. She slipped away as we came down from the hill and some of us saw her as she rejoined her exquisite youngsters.

Also this afternoon we saw an old male called Camello. In another brilliant stroke José spotted a dead guanaco close to the road at the start of the afternoon. It was freshly killed and, to keep away Condors, brush had been

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

piled over the wound where the Puma had begun to eat. We resolved to come back later when the culprit would most likely return to the scene of the crime. Our plans were immediately scuppered by an hour spent with one rear wheel spinning ineffectively in a hole, digging ever deeper into the soft ground. Sprung from our predicament by a helpful passing lorry, we visited Laguna Azul and pointed our optics at White-winged Coots, Silvery Grebes, Yellow-billed Pintail and Chiloé Wigeon. As the day grew old we went back to the kill and found a Puma on it, right by the road. A passing vehicle too soon sent the animal into the scrubby hill, so (the site being outside the park where walking is restricted) we took a trail to scan for it. In perhaps the most thrilling encounter yet, in the glowing evening light this richly red old male (named Camello, meaning camel, because his high shoulders and hips, and his low-slung back, give the impression of humps) walked right by us in the open.

Mocha's mother came next. As soon as we had returned to our bus, leaving Camello in peace in a patch of scrub in which he had taken refuge, José, who had stayed behind, found a Puma. We assumed it was Camello, again on the move now that we had gone. But over the crackly radio we heard José's voice saying that the Puma was behaving as though it were in heat. Our superb guide Cris is a vet and I myself have a passing acquaintance with mammal biology: we were surprised to hear that an old male Puma should be in heat. We raced to the place, as fast as our group could shift and saw a lustrous female Puma, also a rich red, moving up the far hill in the last of the light. On what José later told us was only the third occasion he has heard it in more than twenty years spent with these cats, the female then called to her hidden cubs. The sound, in the cold vastness of evening in this spectacular place, was stirring and strange. Later, having watched her weave over the hill, hiding the trail to her cubs, until dusk had almost fallen, we heard from José (who had looked closely at his photos) that this was the mother of the area's two most confident Pumas: Mocha, whose name reflects the fact that half of her tail has been missing since birth, and Sarmiento, the very female whom, with her cubs, we had seen at the start of the afternoon.

Day 5 Wednesday 7th October

We saw only one Puma this morning. What a waste of our time.

It was a large male walking the crest of a striped sedimentary hill, the morning light aflame on his flank, and behind him last night's snow on the Paine range.

Often I think that my best Snow Leopards in Ladakh are not those which are relatively close; rather those which we see moving across the grandeur of their landscape. So it was today with this Puma. Yesterday we saw several cats at very close quarters. We had our fill of their faces, their savage cold eyes and their swooping tails. Our Puma today was hundreds of metres away but he was part of his tremendous landscape, walking at ease, freezing to stare at a Guanaco, crouching to the dusty soil.

There were Black-necked swans on the steely lakes this morning, and with them Coscorobas. A Patagonian Hog- nosed Skunk pottered about his snuffly business by the road and Long-tailed Meadowlarks puffed their scarlet breasts in display. The sun shone and our faces shone with it, happy to be here in this icy toe of the world, dipped into a far southern sea.

This afternoon, just for a change, we saw three Pumas, all of them extremely well.

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

This is the more remarkable because this afternoon we took a break from Puma-watching to walk the six kilometres of trail between two of the entrances to the park. Along our way there were herds of Guanacos, gorgeous Yellow-bridled Finches, 6,000-year-old rock paintings and a South American snipe. It was a lovely way to blow away the cobwebs of three days spent largely in the bus (and with this afternoon's Patagonian wind, blow is a more than apt verb).

Reaching the guard station at the end of our walk, many needed the loo. By the time you emerged I was waving frantically and barking instructions. All about us Guanacos were whinnying in alarm: a Puma was near. José sprang to life and away up the hill to look for the cat. Nothing.

Then our radios crackled and, through the noise of the wind, we heard him urging us back to the road. We leaped in the bus and drove to the spot, where José pointed into a ditch at the roadside. Sheltering here was a Puma, a Puma we would later see moving in the open between patches of brush and crouching at length to the ground, almost out of sight. She was a well-known cat to José, another daughter of Mocha's mother (the last of the eight pumas we saw yesterday).

We left her to the hunt which José was sure was her plan and drove home. When we reached the lake where on our first evening we saw our first two Pumas (which we thought at the time might be our only Pumas), we saw, sitting at the lake's edge, again no more than thirty metres from us, two Pumas. They were the same two Pumas, a large pale animal and a slight reddish animal.

Together they played with a dead Hog-nosed Skunk, the reddish cat leaping over the other, and mewing, both in José’s experience classic signs of cubhood. The light failed and we left them to their dispute over whether to eat the Skunk, which we speculated that the cub had proudly killed, much to its mother’s disgust.

Day 6 Thursday 8th October

As we drove back this morning from a beautiful drive I was reflecting to myself that sooner or later we had to go out and not see a Puma. Our luck had been verging on absurd.

'Para, para, para!' in José's breathy, excited voice had become by now an anthem of our tour. It means, 'Stop, stop, stop!' It always meant Puma. As we drove home, under a cerro at the roadside, close to the shore of Sarmiento Lake, he said it again today; and there, under a cliff, was a cat's face. Yet another cat's face. 'Son varios,' he said, 'There are several.' I have no idea how he knew this; no-one could see anything but a face, but he was sure. He was right: there were indeed three, as we found going up to the hill. (Inside the park walking is not allowed off few established routes, but here we were outside the park, on land which we have permission to visit.) The Pumas, which we glimpsed walking through the brush of the plateau behind us, were the last female we had seen in the evening two days ago and the full-grown cubs to which we saw her calling: so two new cubs for us, our thirteenth and fourteenth Pumas.

Getting back to the bus José asked me to tell you, as I'd done even after our first sighting, that Puma-watching is rarely this easy, this good, and that sometimes he goes two or three days without seeing a single one. 'We don't believe you,' you all replied.

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

In the afternoon we went in search of the Big Hairy Armadillo. As unlikely as it seems that there should be an animal named the Big Hairy Armadillo, in Patagonia there is. It is a burrow-dwelling loner which spends its its dawns and dusks digging the dust with its big-toed front feet, raising its bristly behind to the sky as it searches for food. All week we had been hoping to see one, but our time until now had been wholly taken up looking for (and finding) Pumas. So this afternoon, after a lovely walk by the lake, with Thorn-tailed Rayaditos, Austral Blackbirds and a Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail (while we're on the subject of unlikely names), Cris and I proposed we should go on an Armadillo hunt.

We went first to a trail to a waterfall, where Cris has often seen Armadillos in the past. We got thirty metres from the bus, though grass heavily scuffed by these animals' toes, before we saw one, pottering about its business in the delicious light of evening. Our Big Hairy Armadillo scratched at the ground and rooted with its snout, blundering at speed between bouts of digging, all the while unaware we were there. Finally this clockwork carapace trundled over a low ridge and we left it in grub-hunting peace.

We saw no Puma this afternoon: the first time we have not done so on a drive in Torres del Paine. Instead we went in search of the unlikely Big Hairy Armadillo. And this we emphatically saw.

Day 7 Friday 9th October

On our way out of Torres del Paine this morning (so soon?) we called at the forested end of the park. A Culpeo Fox danced in the grass and on a ridge we saw a magnificent Huemul, or South Andean Deer, a buck in velvet. There were Thorn-tailed Rayaditos and an Austral Pygmy-Owl in the woods but our search for the splendid Magellanic Woodpecker revealed nothing but holes hacked in the Southern Beech trunks.

By evening we were in a different world: Southern Giant Petrels on the ocean close to our hotel and noisy cars in the streets of Punta Arenas; far from the many Darwin's Rheas and Chilean Flamingos along our way his afternoon, and from José and his Pumas in Torres del Paine.

Day 8 Saturday 10th October

The less said about the next couple of days the better (except to say that they took us from a phenomenal spell of Puma-watching to an equally phenomenal spell of Jaguar-watching). This morning we flew from Punta Arenas to Santiago and this afternoon from Santiago to São Paulo.

Day 9 Sunday 11th October

This morning we flew from São Paulo to Cuiabá. Here we met Naun who, like Cris in Torres del Paine, would open our eyes to the world of Jaguars and the landscape (and waterscape) in which they live. Before he could do that, however, we had a very long drive to Porto Jofre and the Flotel.

Day 10 Monday 12th October

This morning, after two long days of travel to get here, we took to the river in search of Jaguars. It was cold – unseasonably so – cold enough for us to wear gloves and two fleeces. We were concerned by this as Jaguars

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

notoriously take to the forest when the cold weather comes, and they had been seen quite rarely in the past few days. We braced ourselves to have less luck with Jaguars than we had had with the Pumas of Torres del Paine.

However, setting out from the Flotel we saw not one Jaguar but two. High on a bank by the river, above the den of some very disgruntled Giant Otters, we saw Peter with a well-known female known as Ruth. These weren’t the best views of Jaguar one could hope to have, as the two great cats were in the shade, half-hidden by vines, but they were Jaguars and we all breathed a sigh of relief to have seen both species we had set out to see.

There was much else to see here of course. There were Ringed, Amazon and Green Kingfishers fishing from branches hanging over the water. There were Capybaras on every beach and Yacaré Caimans in the shallows. There is always astonishingly much to see along the rivers of the Brazilian Pantanal.

Day 11 Tuesday 13th October

Today, with the sun came the heat and with the heat came the Jaguars. The first we saw was a female, at the back of a bay, behind a mat of water hyacinth preventing our closer approach. She sat on the bank and looked about her until - this was twenty past eight in the morning - the heat of the day was too much and she took to the shade of a tree. Later from photos it emerged that she had never been seen before along the river, making her a new cat for the study. Even in this remarkable population of well-known Jaguars new individuals are being found and are adding to scientific and popular understanding of these dramatic cats.

There were Pierid butterflies, lime, yellow and white, along the water's edge and Caimans basking on the sand. Large-billed Terns cut through the blue over our heads and petrol-glossy Greater Anis waved their huge tails across the river. The Capybaras chomped at the fast-growing grasses, their nonchalant eyes fixed on the far distance: a distance always holding Jaguars.

Our second this morning was a male, identified later from photos as Hero. He had not been seen here in months. He lay in the shade as we sat in the sun, admiring his blotches and spots and craning for a view of his face.

This afternoon the heat was fierce but we sat on the river by Jorge, a three-year-old male Jaguar (son of Ruth, whom we saw courting Peter yesterday). He was dozing in shade on the riverbank, stretching at times, yawning, dozing again. Overhead moved hundreds of Cliff Swallows, plus a few Bank Swallows, arriving from North America. Around us skimmed South America's native Southern Rough-winged and White-winged Swallows. And on the opposite bank Capybaras grazed, unaware of the threat to their lives in the forest's shade.

News came of a new Jaguar nearby, but we stayed with Jorge, looking, alone on the river, into his pale, implacable eyes as the day aged and the shadows grew. With fine photos taken we sped at last downriver to the beach on which a female Jaguar had been found. Estela sat on the sand, piercing the lengthening shadows with her gaze. Then the Band-tailed Nighthawks came, and the Greater Fishing Bats came, and the orange light of sunset came, and the time came for us to come home.

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

Day 12 Wednesday 14th October

Just when your cup of Pumas and Jaguars is overflowing, and you think things can get no better, this morning happens. News came to us this morning, when we were already upstream, of a Jaguar on the Cuiabá river, so we turned and sped back. Round the next bend was a single boat beside a beach; and on the beach, striding confident in flawless morning light, was a different Jaguar from the one we had been chasing, a male Jaguar with his right eye sunken and lost. One of the best-known and most-loved Jaguars here, and the star of a YouTube video of a cat killing a caiman, his name, I regret, is Mick Jaguar.

The sound, these days, of a thrilling wildlife encounter, is the chatter of Nikon and Canon. The thrill may be measured by its intensity. This morning the cameras chattered and chipped without rest for minutes on end as this muscled mass of dappled cat walked the beach and wove through the tangled trees which tumbled into the water. He went up to the bank and came up from behind a massive fallen tree to stand on it, his one good eye assessing the river and his camera-clicking subjects.

We saw him for many minutes more, moving through the mesh of vines, palms and saplings on the top of the bank, sitting again and looking. Finally he left, into the forest, bound who knows where.

The Jaguar-watchers left too. After all on the Cuiabá there was still a Jaguar to see. This was Ruth, the female we half-saw on our first day here (mother of Jorge). Today we saw her superbly, dropping from the bank to the water's edge, nudging through the floating mat of water hyacinth in search of Caimans, sending a family of alarm-sneezing Capybaras swimming in panic across the river. Today we even saw her sagging belly and swollen teats, indicating that she clearly has young cubs somewhere near, and was just as clearly tricking Peter the other day when he thought he was fathering her next litter.

I have not even mentioned the six Giant Otters this morning, preening and playing in the eddies, the Piping- Guans eating clay, the Black Howler Monkey mothers hauling their young through the trees like backpacks and bumbags.

As for this afternoon, it began and ended with Patricia. Sister of Jorge and daughter of Ruth, at the start of the afternoon she lay in the shade and did nothing. Much later, on our return from the river to the Black Bay, she slumped on the trunk of an overhanging tree and slept, her huge paws dangling like a Leopard's, her face lazy, content.

It was savagely hot on the river this afternoon but in the dying light of the day a great cat lay on a tree's trunk over water. And we were there to see her.

Day 13 Thursday 15th October

It's always difficult, on a Jaguar tour, to decide not to look for Jaguars, but to go instead to look for Hyacinth Macaws. Lurking in your mind is inevitably the thought of the fabulous Jaguars others might be seeing. In part we were worried, therefore, when Naun and I decided to go to Pousada Piquirí where we spent two hours in awe of the world’s most striking parrot, in addition to much other fine wildlife: White-eyed Parakeet, Azara’s Agouti, Giant Otter, Jabiru and Southern Caracara.

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

On our return to the floating hotel I rushed to find out which Jaguars had been seen in the morning. None. Not a single visitor had seen a Jaguar all morning. Phew.

So in the afternoon we went in search of Jaguars. And who should find Jaguars? Why, those who went to Pousada Piquirí to look for Hyacinth Macaws found two young females on a beach by the Piquirí River. By the time the news came, we ourselves had gone much too far in the wrong direction to turn around. We could not reach the Jaguars in daylight. We would have to find our own. We did not.

As we drew to our mooring at the Flotel in the evening, just as I turned to tell you what had happened, to break it to you gently that we had missed these two Jaguars, our brilliant boatman João veered from the hotel and tore at full speed upriver, to the only beach visible from our rooms. There in the dusk, the Band-tailed Nighthawks around him, lay panting a massive, handsome, youthful male Jaguar: Adriano. He turned, he lolled his tongue, then silently he came to the shore, just metres from us, and drank. We stayed with him until dark and mosquitos drove us back; our day without Jaguars saved by a motor's thrust and the lapping of a big pink tongue.

Day 14 Friday 16th October

As we set out for the river on our last safari this morning, João again turned at speed and raced back to the Piquirí, upriver to where yesterday's slender females had been found once more: the tenth and eleventh Jaguars of our tour. One of these gorgeous girls came to a beach from the forest and, like Adriano the day before, she drank. Her frame, her gait, the graceful curve of her head and neck, were of a Leopard, with only her big black rosettes marking her as a Jaguar. She stopped to drink a second time, then lightly trod across the sand and into cover. We left the river, for Porto Jofre, for SouthWild Pantanal, all of us elated, uplifted by what we had seen: not least, among many beautiful things, eleven spectacular spotted cats.

Our drive to SouthWild was punctuated by stops for Scarlet-headed Blackbirds, Marsh Deer (a female and a youngster seen extremely well in a waterhole by the roadside), Red-billed Whistling-Ducks and a Yellow Anaconda. In the afternoon, after a long siesta to recover from a hot, dusty drive, we took to a different river, the Pixaim, specifically in search of the habituated group of Giant Otters which the fishermen here have long been protecting. These we saw superbly, in addition to Black-collared Hawks, Little Blue Herons, a Boat-billed Heron and many Cocois.

In the evening most of us (fairly tired by this point) took a last night drive and were rewarded with excellent views of a young male (very definitely male) Brazilian Tapir.

Day 15 Saturday 17th October

This morning two of you left us for earlier flights while the rest took a walk around the lodge grounds, visiting a fledged Great Horned Owl and its parent and meeting Blue, the rescued Hyacinth Macaw who lives around the staff building at SouthWild. After lunch at the lodge we set off north again to Cuiabá, for the first of our flights home, and thus a spectacular adventure with South America’s big cats came to its end.

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

Day 16 Saturday 17th October

Arrival back in the UK

Thanks

Such a tremendous adventure rests on the talent, commitment and enthusiasm of many people. We could not have been luckier in the people we worked with: Cris and Naun, our knowledgeable, friendly, humourous and charming guides; Sergio our driver in Torres del Paine and João our boatman in the Pantanal; the charming staff at our lodge on a lake in Chile and Xavi and her team on board the Flotel; plus of course countless cooks, cleaners, waiters, air crew and others along the way. We thank them all for a truly splendid trip.

Cris, Naun and I thank you too: for laughs, informed questions, interesting discussions, constant enthusiasm and energy, and love for the wildlife and wild landscapes we were privileged to share.

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Big Hairy Armadillo Giant Otter

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

Species Lists

Mammals (= recorded but not counted; H = heard only) October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1 Big Hairy Armadillo Chaetophractus villosus  2 Tufted Capuchin Cebus apella H 3 Black Howler Alouatta caraya    4 Capybara Hydrochoeris hydrochaeris       5 Azara's Agouti Dasyprocta azarae  6 Puma Puma concolor 2 8 4 3 7 Jaguar Panthera onca 2 4 3 1 2 8 Giant Otter Pteronura brasiliensis     9 Patagonian Skunk Conepatus humboldtii  10 South American Coati Nasua nasua  11 South American Tapir Tapirus terrestris  12 Guanaco Lama glama       13 Marsh Deer Blastocerus dichotomus   14 Guemal Hippocamelus bisulcus  15 Andean Red Fox Dusicyon culpaeus  16 Southern Grey Fox Dusicyon griseus   17 Brown Hare Lepus capensis     

Birds 1 Undulated Tinamou Crypturellus undulatus  H H H H 2 Greater Rhea Rhea americana  3 Lesser Rhea Rhea pennata     4 Southern Screamer Chauna torquata      5 White-faced Whistling Duck Dendrocygna viduata  6 Black-bellied Whistling Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis  7 Coscoroba Swan Coscoroba coscoroba  8 Black-necked Swan Cygnus melancoryphus      9 Flying Steamer Duck Tachyeres patachonicus  

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 10 Upland Goose Chloephaga picta      11 Ashy-headed Goose Chloephaga poliocephala  12 Muscovy Duck Cairina moschata    13 Crested Duck Lophonetta specularioides      14 Spectacled Duck Speculanas specularis  15 Chiloe Wigeon Anas sibilatrix    16 Yellow-billed Teal Anas flavirostris     17 Yellow-billed Pintail Anas georgica    18 Chaco Chachalaca Ortalis canicollis       19 Chestnut-bellied Guan Penelope ochrogaster     20 Blue-throated Piping Guan Pipile cumanensis        21 Bare-faced Curassow Crax fasciolata    22 Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus  23 White-tufted Grebe Rollandia rolland   24 Great Grebe Podiceps major   25 Silvery Grebe Podiceps occipitalis   26 Chilean Flamingo Phoenicopterus chilensis   27 Wood Stork Mycteria americana       28 Jabiru Jabiru mycteria        29 Plumbeous Ibis Theristicus caerulescens   30 Buff-necked Ibis Theristicus caudatus       31 Black-faced Ibis Theristicus melanopis      32 Green Ibis Mesembrinibis cayennensis     33 Roseate Spoonbill Platalea ajaja   34 Rufescent Tiger Heron Tigrisoma lineatum       35 Boat-billed Heron Cochlearius cochlearius     36 Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax   37 Striated Heron Butorides striata       38 Western Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis   39 Cocoi Heron Ardea cocoi       40 Great Egret Ardea alba      41 Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea  

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 42 Snowy Egret Egretta thula      43 Neotropic Cormorant Phalacrocorax brasilianus       44 Rock Shag Phalacrocorax atriceps  45 Imperial Shag Leucocarbo atriceps    46 Anhinga Anhinga anhinga      47 Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura  48 Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes burrovianus       49 Black Vulture Coragyps atratus       50 Andean Condor Vultur gryphus      51 Western Osprey Pandion haliaetus    52 Cinereous Harrier Circus cinereus   53 Mississippi Kite Ictinia mississippiensis  54 Black-collared Hawk Busarellus nigricollis      55 Snail Kite Rostrhamus sociabilis  56 Crane Hawk Geranospiza caerulescens    57 Savanna Hawk Buteogallus meridionalis   58 Great Black Hawk Buteogallus urubitinga      59 Roadside Hawk Rupornis magnirostris    60 Black-chested Buzzard-eagle Geranoaetus melanoleucus      61 Red-legged Seriema Cariama cristata    62 Sunbittern Eurypyga helias  63 Grey-necked Wood Rail Aramides cajaneus    64 Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinicus  65 White-winged Coot Fulica leucoptera  66 Red-gartered Coot Fulica armillata     67 Limpkin Aramus guarauna       68 Magellanic Oystercatcher Haematopus leucopodus    69 Southern Lapwing Vanellus chilensis       H    70 Collared Plover Charadrius collaris   71 Pied Plover Hoploxypterus cayanus    72 Wattled Jacana Jacana jacana        73 South American Snipe Gallinago paraguaiae H 

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 74 Black Skimmer Rynchops niger      75 Brown-hooded Gull Chroicocephalus maculipennis   76 Dolphin Gull Leucophaeus scoresbii   77 Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus   78 Yellow-billed Tern Sternula superciliaris      79 Large-billed Tern Phaetusa simplex       80 Picazuro Pigeon Patagioenas picazuro   81 Pale-vented Pigeon Patagioenas cayennensis      82 Scaled Dove Columbina squammata 83 Ruddy Ground Dove Columbina talpacoti    84 Picui Ground Dove Columbina picui   85 Long-tailed Ground Dove Uropelia campestris  86 White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi     87 Eared Dove Zenaida auriculata    88 Guira Cuckoo Guira guira   H 89 Greater Ani Crotophaga major      90 Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani       91 Striped Cuckoo Tapera naevia H H H   92 Little Cuckoo Coccycua minuta     93 Squirrel Cuckoo Piaya cayana H H  94 Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus   95 Austral Pygmy Owl Glaucidium nana  96 Great Potoo Nyctibius grandis  97 Band-tailed Nighthawk Nyctiprogne leucopyga      98 Pauraque Nyctidromus albicollis  H H 99 Black-throated Mango Anthracothorax nigricollis   100 Blue-crowned Trogon Trogon curucui  101 Green Kingfisher Chloroceryle americana    102 Amazon Kingfisher Chloroceryle amazona      103 Ringed Kingfisher Megaceryle torquata       104 Rufous-tailed Jacamar Galbula ruficauda     105 Black-fronted Nunbird Monasa nigrifrons     

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 106 Chestnut-eared Aracari Pteroglossus castanotis H  107 Toco Toucan Ramphastos toco    108 Striped Woodpecker Veniliornis lignarius  109 Green-barred Woodpecker Colaptes melanochloros  110 Chilean Flicker Colaptes pitius  111 Southern Crested Caracara Caracara plancus             112 Yellow-headed Caracara Milvago chimachima      113 Chimango Caracara Milvago chimango    114 American Kestrel Falco sparverius   115 Bat Falcon Falco rufigularis  116 Monk Parakeet Myiopsitta monachus       117 Yellow-chevroned Parakeet Brotogeris chiriri        118 Scaly-headed Parrot Pionus maximiliani  119 Turquoise-fronted Amazon Amazona aestiva      120 Austral Parakeet Enicognathus ferrugineus    121 Hyacinth Macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus      122 Peach-fronted Parakeet Eupsittula aurea   123 Blue-and-yellow Macaw Ara ararauna  124 Scaly-throated Earthcreeper Upucerthia dumetaria   125 Buff-winged Cinclodes Cinclodes fuscus   126 Dark-bellied Cinclodes Cinclodes patagonicus   127 Pale-legged Hornero Furnarius leucopus       128 Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus       129 Thorn-tailed Rayadito Aphrastura spinicauda      130 Plain-mantled Tit-spinetail Leptasthenura aegithaloides     131 Austral Canastero Asthenes anthoides    132 White-lored Spinetail Synallaxis albilora H H 133 Rusty-backed Spinetail Cranioleuca vulpina  134 Grey-crested Cacholote Pseudoseisura unirufa  135 Straight-billed Woodcreeper Dendroplex picus  136 Red-billed Scythebill Campylorhamphus trochilirostris H  137 Great Antshrike Taraba major  H

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 138 Barred Antshrike Thamnophilus doliatus  139 Mato Grosso Antbird Cercomacra melanaria H H 140 Southern Beardless Tyrannulet Camptostoma obsoletum H 141 Tufted Tit-tyrant Anairetes parulus  142 Common Tody-flycatcher Todirostrum cinereum  143 Austral Negrito Lessonia rufa      144 Great Shrike-tyrant Agriornis lividus  145 Fire-eyed Diucon Xolmis pyrope    146 Black-backed Water Tyrant Fluvicola albiventer   147 Cattle Tyrant Machetornis rixosa    148 Piratic Flycatcher Legatus leucophaius  H H H 149 Rusty-margined Flycatcher Myiozetetes cayanensis      150 Great Kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus       151 Lesser Kiskadee Philohydor lictor H H  152 White-throated Kingbird Tyrannus albogularis  153 Tropical Kingbird Tyrannus melancholicus      154 Fork-tailed Flycatcher Tyrannus savana    155 Short-crested Flycatcher Myiarchus ferox   156 Rufous-tailed Plantcutter Phytotoma rara    157 Rufous-browed Peppershrike Cyclarhis gujanensis H H H 158 Purplish Jay Cyanocorax cyanomelas   159 Sand Martin Riparia riparia  160 White-winged Swallow Tachycineta albiventer       161 Chilean Swallow Tachycineta leucopyga    162 Grey-breasted Martin Progne chalybea   163 Brown-chested Martin Progne tapera      164 Southern Rough-winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx ruficollis      165 Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica   166 American Cliff Swallow Petrochelidon pyrrhonota   167 Black-capped Donacobius Donacobius atricapilla      168 Thrush-like Wren Campylorhynchus turdinus     169 Buff-breasted Wren Cantorchilus leucotis H  

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South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 170 House Wren Troglodytes aedon    171 Chalk-browed Mockingbird Mimus saturninus   172 Rufous-bellied Thrush Turdus rufiventris H   173 Austral Thrush Turdus falcklandii      174 Correndera Pipit Anthus correndera   175 Flavescent Warbler Myiothlypis flaveola H 176 Long-tailed Meadowlark Sturnella loyca     177 Solitary Cacique Cacicus solitarius      178 Yellow-rumped Cacique Cacicus cela      179 Orange-backed Troupial Icterus croconotus      180 Giant Cowbird Molothrus oryzivorus   181 Austral Blackbird Curaeus curaeus     182 Scarlet-headed Blackbird Amblyramphus holosericeus  183 Chopi Blackbird Gnorimopsar chopi  184 Greyish Baywing Agelaioides badius   185 Unicolored Blackbird Agelasticus cyanopus     186 Bananaquit Coereba flaveola H  187 Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis       188 Yellow-billed Cardinal Paroaria capitata       189 Silver-beaked Tanager Ramphocelus carbo   190 Palm Tanager Thraupis palmarum     191 Grey-hooded Sierra Finch Phrygilus gayi     192 Patagonian Sierra Finch Phrygilus patagonicus  193 Yellow-bridled Finch Melanodera xanthogramma  194 Saffron Finch Sicalis flaveola    195 Rusty-collared Seedeater Sporophila collaris  196 Double-collared Seedeater Sporophila caerulescens   197 Greyish Saltator Saltator coerulescens                    

South America’s Big Cats Tour Report

October Common name Scientific name 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Reptiles 1 Yacare Caiman Caiman crocodilus jacare       2 Common (Green) Iguana Iguana iguana    3 Yellow Anaconda Eunectes notatus 

Guemal Jaguar Capybara

Torres del Paine Guanaco Hosteria Pehoe