Wildlife of Eastern Brazil
21st May - 9th June 2024
Santuario do Caraca, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Having spent an excellent few weeks in the Pantanal and Amazon a few years ago I decided it was time to return and explore eastern Brazil. Home to the majority of the country's huge 200,000,000 population, the region is highly developed, but some wonderful wildlife still survives in the fragments of remaining Atlantic forest, cerrado and caatinga... the challenge was going to be finding it!
Mico-Leão-Dourado Ecological Park
Bleary-eyed from the 28-hour journey, I picked up a hire car at 5:30am and immediately set off to escape the scary, bustling chaos of Rio de Janeiro. I was headed for the Mico-Leão-Dourado Ecological Park, a conservation project 2 hours drive from the city, set up to protect one of the main targets of my trip... the highly endangered golden lion tamarin. I was met by biologist Paula Pereira and we went straight into the woodland where researchers were observing one of the local troops.
The aim of the Ecological Park is to preserve and restore the highly threatened Atlantic Forest habitat where the tamarins live, but also to study them and the other wildlife, and educate local people about them. I spent two mornings with researchers observing the tamarins and the rest of my time exploring the impressive forest and photographing the various birds and insects with Paula as my excellent guide. The perfect start to my trip!
Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia)
White-crowned Manakin (Pseudopipra pipra)
Orange-barred Sulphur (Phoebis philea) egg-laying
Santa Teresa
Next was a long 8-hour drive north away from the turmoil of Rio de Janeiro to the picturesque little town of Santa Teresa, home to another important research centre dedicated to preservation of the Atlantic forest, the Instituto Nacional Da Mata Atlántica. My start was delayed when the hire car decided to automatically lock itself with the keys inside! But an 'engineer' turned up promptly to break in and I made the journey in good time reaching my accommodation, the beautiful Sítio Juara lodge, shortly after dark.
I woke at dawn to superb views across the hills accompanied by a chorus of birdsong and spent a couple of hours photographing troupials and parrots, followed by an excellent breakfast before heading down to the Institute. It's set in a remaining fragment of forest, teeming with birds and butterflies, and while there I got talking with one of the biologists Guilherme Sanches Correa do Nascimento, who kindly gave me an impressive book his team has written about the forest and its wildlife.
Maroon-bellied Parakeet (Pyrrhura frontalis)
Campo Troupial (Icterus jamacaii)
Ethilla Longwing butterfly (Heliconius ethilla)
Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua) eating a bee
Reserva Natural Vale
Next was a short 3-hour drive northwards to Vale Natural Reserve, a large area of protected forest where I'd booked a full day's tour with Gabriel Bonfa, one of the local guides. This was my best opportunity to photograph some of the rare Atlantic forest mammals, but sadly it was also my only day with heavy rain which made seeing any wildlife a major challenge... let alone photographing it!
Thankfully, there were a few dry spells which allowed me to get some good views of the main target of my visit, the cute White-headed Marmoset, as well as some nice birds and a large troop of coati. Thanks to Gabriel's skill the day wasn't a complete washout, but it's somewhere I would definitely like to have spent more time.
Green-backed Trogon (Trogon viridis)
South American Coati (Nasua nasua)
White-headed Marmoset (Callithrix geoffroyi)
Reserva Naturale Feliciano Miguel Abdala
From Vale I headed 5 hours westward to Reserva Naturale Feliciano Miguel Abdala. This was another private Atlantic forest reserve created to protect the local wildlife, this time one of the world's most critically endangered primates, the Northern Muriqui. I stayed at the Corredeiras Do Primitivo Hotel on the edge of the forest, basic but pleasant and comfortable and again surrounded by birdlife.
Dawn the next morning found me deep in the forest with my guide Roberto, and after a couple of hours searching we had great views of a family of muriqui feeding in the canopy and athletically swinging through the branches. This was easily the most expensive tour of my trip, but the money is going to an excellent cause and it was worth the expense.
Gray-headed Tody-flycatcher (Todirostrum poliocephalum)
Northern Muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus)
Amber Phantom (Haetera piera)
Santuário do Caraҫa
Next I headed another 7 hours west into the mountains where the Atlantic Forest gives way to cerrado grassland. I spent a pleasant day in Serra do Cipo National Park before moving on to my main target, the famous Santuário do Caraҫa... a 150 year-old catholic sanctuary set in a large area of protected woods and grassland. Of course, I wasn't there to worship, but to photograph a rare local mammal which is usually particularly difficult to see... the enigmatic maned wolf.
About 40 years ago, one of the monks started putting food out in the evenings for the wolves and they've been coming each night ever since. I have to admit it felt a bit like a circus show, waiting in the courtyard with 30 other people, playing on their phones and chatting over glasses of wine. They did quieten down when the wolves arrived though and being able to see these magnificent animals roaming freely, as well as little hoary foxes and a variety of birdlife, definitely made the visit worthwhile.
Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)
Hoary Fox (Lycalopex vetulus)
Long-tailed Tyrant (Colonia colonus)
Rio de Janiero Botanical Gardens
It was time for another long 8 hour drive back to Rio de Janeiro where I'd booked a couple of nights in the city. Rio has quite a scary reputation, but like most cities it depends very much on which area you are in. Gavea where I stayed was very calm and pleasant as well as convenient for the Botanical Gardens, which contain another remnant of the Atlantic forest which once covered the region.
There was a surpising amount of wildlife in the gardens, from secretive larva lizards to huge heliconiid butterflies and beautiful hummingbirds to brazen monkeys. Black capuchins are native to the forest while the agile little white-tufted marmosets were introduced from their natural home in the north about 100 years ago and have now become established.
White-tufted Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)
Violet-capped Woodnymph (Thalurania glaucopis)
Julia Heliconian (Dryas iulia)
Black Capuchin (Sapajus nigritus)
Chapada Diamantina National Park
Before leaving Brazil there was one more habitat I needed to explore; the special caatinga, a dry, arid shrubland found nowhere in the world except north-east Brazil. I flew to Salvador and then drove 6 hours west to Pousada Vila Serrano in the mountains of Chapada Diamantina National Park. The aim was to photograph some of the special animals and particularly the endemic birds that live there, but they're hard to find so I wasn't hugely confident. To improve my chances I'd enlisted the help of Simone Dias Moreno of Chapada Mar (www.chapadamar.com/en/) who was brilliant and arranged a day tour with local bird guide Thalison Ribeiro.
Despite not really being a birder, my day with Thalison was one of the best of the whole trip. Very knowledgeable and skilful, he not only found me a whole host of rare local birds including antwrens, antshrikes, gnateaters and a tapaculo, but more importantly got me into good positions to photograph them!
My second day was spent photographing invertebrates and lizards and then the third was abandoned when the Movida rental car packed up. But Simone and the Pousada Vila Serrano staff were brilliant and arranged to get me back to Salvador in time for my evening flight to Ecuador.
My second day was spent photographing invertebrates and lizards and then the third was abandoned when the Movida rental car packed up. But Simone and the Pousada Vila Serrano staff were brilliant and arranged to get me back to Salvador in time for my evening flight to Ecuador.
Green-eyed Jumping Spider (Salticidae sp.)
Female Sincora Antwren (Formicivora grantsaui)
Male Hooded Visobearer (Augastes lumachella)
Neotropical Larva Lizard (Tropidurus hispidus)
Striped Larva Lizard (Tropidurus semitaeniatus)
I think this is the most apprehensive I've ever been heading out for a photographic trip. Travelling alone with expensive camera gear in a country with political unrest and a high crime rate, as well as several thousand miles of driving on South America's dangerous roads well away from the main tourist destinations... there was a lot of potential for an upset!
As it turned out the driving was certainly nerve-wracking, but the roads were in much better condition than I expected and I never felt any threat from the people, who were all friendly and helpful, despite my limited Portuguese. Of course there's no comparison with the wildlife to be seen in areas like the Pantanal or the Amazon. Here the habitat consists of fragmented remnants facing huge pressures from development, and the animal life is scarce and hard to find. The various guides were all excellent though and in the end I got good views of all my main targets, and overall would probably rate it one of my most successful trips.
Mammal Species
Mico-Leão-Dourado Ecological Park
Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia)White-tufted Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)
Reserva Natural Vale
Crested Capuchin (Sapajus robustus)White-headed Marmoset (Callithrix geoffroyi)
Atlantic Titi (Callicebus personatus)(heard)
Brown Howler (Alouatta guariba)(heard)
Collared Peccary(Dicotyles tajacu)
Red-rumped Agouti (Dasyprocta leporina)
South American Coati (Nasua nasua)
Reserva Naturale Feliciano Miguel Abdala
Northern Muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus)Black Capuchin (Sapajus nigritus)
Santuário do Caraҫa
Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)Hoary Fox (Lycalopex vetulus)
Rio de Janiero Botanical Gardens
White-tufted Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus)Black Capuchin (Sapajus nigritus)
White-tufted Marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) roof-running in Rio de Janeiro