NORTH PANTANAL, FEATURING JAGUAR RESEARCH CENTER AND PANTANAL WILDLIFE CENTER

Located in central-western Brazil, the Pantanal is a UK-sized mosaic of seasonally-flooded savannahs and tropical forests that features the finest wildlife viewing in Latin America.

This area harbors a world-record 82 species of large birds, thousands of which can be seen during a 1-h drive on the raised Transpantaneira Road, the only all-year route that penetrates the heart of this enormous wildland.

At the end of the Transpantaneira Road winds a labyrinth of rivers on which our specially-trained trackers and boatmen showed Jaguars to our guests 1,200 times on 900 days with guests between 2005 and 2010. No other location in the world can offer so many Jaguars per day. Many of the big cats are so accustomed to humans watching them from small boats that they allow guests to observe their private lives for hours from close range. Furthermore, in 2010, 100% of our guests saw Giant Otters, often from very short distances and for extended periods. Finally, more than 90% of our guests also saw Brazilian Tapirs, often during the day.

"LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION"

In Jaguar viewing, as in real estate, location is everything. We have spent seven years now refining and perfecting the location of our Jaguar camp, and now we have by far the best and definitive location for the SouthWild Jaguar Camp---13 kilometers up the Piquirí River from its confluence with the Cuiabá.

In July 2005, our special research teams began systematic boat surveys of the rivers upstream from Porto Jofre, as all informants at that time told us that the Piquirí River and the Tres Irmãos River were the best locations in the entire Pantanal to find habituated Jaguars relaxing and hunting on the riverbanks. They were correct. Since then, we have shown Jaguars to over 1,000 visitors and have amassed over 1,000 hours of direct observation of wild Jaguars on these rivers.

Each year, we tested different locations to establish our seasonal research and tourism base. In 2005 and 2006, it was on the lower Piquirí River, three kilometers above the confluence with the Cuiabá River. In 2007, our camp was based nine kilometers up the Tres Irmãos River. In 2008 and 2009, it was based two kilometers up the Tres Irmãos River. In 2010, it was based on ships anchored either at the mouth of the Tres Irmãos OR two kilometers below the mouth of the Tres Irmãos. In December 2010, we opened our new new tented camp at the forested location 13 km up the Piquirí from its confluence with the Cuiabá River. It it is this last location that will be the the site of the large, "SouthWild Jaguar Camp" tented camp, which will operate there in all of 2011 and for many years to come.

Why did we choose this last location? First and foremost, it is centrally-located to allow fast boat access to Jaguars spotted on any part of the 100 kilometers of river (200 kilometers of riverbank!) that our seven years of research and tourism operations have proven to be the world's most productive location for sightings of habituated Jaguars. Our research and surveys have shown that river sections further upstream or downstream from these 100 kilometers of rivers have proven to be considerably less productive for Jaguars and Giant Otters. All the Jaguar tour operators who are now trying to copy our success all know that these rivers are the most productive.

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Consider your schedule for Jaguar search and observation. If you wake up at dawn in the middle of the Jaguar zone, then you can get to the first Jaguars much more quickly than you can from any lodge or camp located at Porto Jofre, which is on the extreme downstream edge of the Jaguar Zone. Also, if you wish to have a hot lunch and nap after lunch, it is much better to do that at our Jaguar Camp than at the distant Porto Jofre. By sleeping, breakfasting, lunching, and napping at our Jaguar Camp, we can call you at any moment (like on-duty firemen) to go at a moment's notice to enjoy the many Jaguars that appear in the morning and throughout the day in all parts of the Jaguar Zone. Ninety-nine percent of the Jaguar zone is private property, and all landowners but one who is located on the NW edge of the Jaguar Zone are involved in Jaguar conservation or Jaguar tourism and therefore completely prohibit any hunting. The one landowner who has hunted Jaguars as recently as 2007 has since stopped all hunting, but we all need to be vigilant and to hope that Jaguar tourism can produce enough income and jobs for everyone to ensure that hunting does not resume and that the miracle of tame Jaguars continues and spreads.

When you are considering which Jaguar tour operator to use, you will find all ranges of prices and kinds of services, but the key details to check are where you will sleep, where you will lunch, and where you will nap after lunch. THOSE three key details will greatly affect the quality and quantity of your Jaguar viewings. Our SouthWild Jaguar Camp is in the perfect location, as you literally are in the middle of the Jaguar and Giant Otter action. Therefore, you automatically will enjoy many more and better sightings of both species of those top predators than will travelers sleeping either at Porto Jofre or at lodges located 45-60 minutes north on the Transpantaneira from Porto Jofre. We notice that many travelers do not understand this geography of lodge location. It comes as no surprise to us that lodges located far from the center of the action do not talk about "location, location, location". It has cost SouthWild enormous sums of money to conduct the elaborate location experiments over the past seven years, but now our guests are the beneficiaries of our research, as we have the ideal location.

Finally, we intentionally have located the SouthWild Jaguar Camp INSIDE shady forest along the banks of the 100-meter-wide Piquirí River, as this location is both cooler and more natural in every way than is the hot, deforested, biologically-poor clearings that are typical of most lodges and hotels in the Pantanal. The fishermen's hotel at Porto Jofre is a series of brick houses sitting in the blazing sun most of the day in a gigantic clearing deforested years ago with bulldozers owned by the fisherman who built the hotel. These houses soak up so much sun all day long that you have to close the windows and run the air conditioners all night just to try to cool off the hot, thick walls. It is impossible to hear any night sounds when inside a closed, air conditioned room. In contrast, the Jaguar Camp has fresh, flow-through, forest air and allows you to enjoy the night and day sounds---frogs, birds, crickets, monkeys, caimans, and yes, sometimes Jaguars. The Jaguar Camp DOES offer 24-h fans, for some nights and days are too hot to sleep or nap well without moving air, but even with the fans running, you can hear most of the outside sounds along with the rustling of the leaves.