Location: Brazil

What is the Pantanal?
The Pantanal is one of our planet's most spectacular wetland systems. It is a flat, mineral rich area situated along the northernmost part of the Paraguay River and its tributaries. Rivers in the region become extensively flooded during the rainy season, creating small freshwater marshes (called baias), small saltwater lakes (called salinas), and oxbows (isolated lakes or marshes adjoining the river). Eighty percent (80%) of the Pantanal is located in central and western Brazil. General definition of the word 'pantanal' means 'bog' or 'marsh,' which is a good description of the terrain found there.

Where is it?
The Pantanal is located east of the Andes Mountains, and covers area in three countries; central and western Brazil, and eastern Bolivia and Paraguay. The environment within the Pantanal region is pristine - biologically one of the richest environments left on the planet. Rivers within the region include the Taquari River, Miranda River, Rio Negro and the Cuiaba River, as well as the Sao Lorenzo River, which flows into the Cuiaba River, and Aquidauana River, which flows into the Miranda River. The Paraguay River is the region's only natural drainage.

How big is it?
Depending on the time of year the area of the Pantanal covers between 54,000 square miles and 81,000 square miles. In comparison to familiar places in the U.S. the Pantanal is about 10 times larger than the Florida Everglades - making it about half the size of California - just about the same size as the State of Utah.

What is the weather like?
The Pantanal has two seasons: a wet season from roughly October to March, and a dry season from April to September. About 80 percent of the rain falls during the wet season. An average rainfall of 10 inches during the month of January alone is typical in the northern part of the basin.

Who lives there?
Not many people live in the region of the Pantanal. Most inhabitants are either four legged, finned or winged. In the Pantanal there are 230 species of fishes, 658 species of birds, 80 species of mammals, 50 species of reptiles and 25 species of flies.

Why do field research?

Listen to a complicated answer by Mrs. Coleman

Nothing like the mornings

The beauty of the sunrise was spectacular. Sunset was just as colorful, each day a little different.

Two weeks here was not enough for me, I wanted to stay two more.

Jabiru - Brazilian symbol

As if to say goodbye, our lovely birds were there on the last morning, walking in the marshes. Five or six of them doing nothing, just watching. And we were watching them, too.

Nonchalant

We had these 'wanderers' always present. They just grazed our lawn, waiting for nothing special, but they were everywhere.

Hospitality

The staff at the Fazenda Rio Negro was fabulous. They served our breakfast faithfully each morning at 6:30 A.M. - lunch each day at 12:30 - and supper at 6:30 P.M.

The meals should be pictured in a magazine. And all of it was homegrown and homemade! The kitchen staff were chefs, no doubt about it.

Reality of place

One thing I loved was seeing the everyday sights of the region: large ant hills (about as tall as me - over five feet high), Africanized bee hives in the forest (we ran into a few and had to sneak around them), and the giant termite nests, like this one. Termite nests hang in trees and are about the size of a large watermelon.

Always on my mind

Even when the water studies are going on, the peccary are always in the back of scientists' thoughts. Each time we went out on the boats, getting from one location to another, we would take out the tracking equipment to see if we could pick up a signal.

We did pick up several - and we saw a lot of animals along the shores that were an added bonus, like the howler monkeys, we saw an entire family, and the giant otter in the water, lots of caiman, birds of all sorts - even the spoonbill - all fabulous. But the peccary were what brought us here, and so we keep them in mind always.

I asked Alexine what ONE tool was the most beneficial to them in the field and she said it was radio tracking and GPS. Without them there would be no record of where the animals roam.

Last day in the water

My last day on the field was doing my favorite project - the water insect study. It was a beautiful day and the water at this salina was shallow, making all 50 meters easy to deplete of our insect samples.

The only thing about this day was that I forgot my hat - which we were supposed to wear to protect us from the harsh rays of the sun. I also forgot to put sunscreen on my neck, and got a very bad sunburn. But it was very fun, and everyone on my team were great to work with.

The face of the salina

This is about 6:30 in the morning, the waters of the salina reflecting like a mirror.

Some of the best things about this trip were the people. For things to do, the research was great fun - not just for me but also for each of the 12 teachers who participated - 9 from the U.S., 2 from the U.K. one from Brazil. I guess that is why we each became teachers, we just like stuff like this a lot.

Next to those things was the scenery. What an incredibly beautiful place. It is funny to me when I think back to when I first received my fellowship award. I didn't really want to go to Brazil, I had no idea what was here, and how very glad I am that this is the place I was sent.

Late night tracking

We worked late that evening, tracking as many peccary as possible. Microchips are used for identification but not for tracking. Tracking can only be done on adult animals, because a large radio collar is placed only on adult animals. The radio collar emits a signal. Each signal is numerically different, making it possible to identify an animal from a distance.

Although animals cannot be physically monitored with this method, scientists are able to keep a record of where the animal is eating. This data has helped them to understand how large an area the peccary typically need to survive.

Microchip reads

This is the tool used to scan an animal for a microchip. First, the scan is done to see if an animal has a chip - if it does there will be a numeric reading on the screen.

Next, the reading is matched to the numbers in the book to identify when the animal was last captured. This is where the scientists can check the growth rate of an animal, and log new sets of data on the same animal on repeated captures.

There is a reason they want to monitor peccary: feral pigs - which are not native to the area - threaten the peccary population because they eat the same foods, but they multiply 10 times faster. Peccary are in danger of starvation, thanks to the wild pig population. Hunters are allowed to hunt and eat the pig - but not the peccary - in hopes that the pig population will decrease.

We ate one of these wild pigs ourselves, and he was quite delicious! We do what we can to help out!!

Weighing in

This is the method for weighing an animal on the field. After they are sedated, they are wrapped in a netting. The scale is hung from a nearby branch - one that can hold the weight of a full-grown animal. The scale shows the weight in metrics.

You have to stand back and let the bag hand freely to get an accurate weight. Animals that are captured repeatedly are weighed and their weight logged under the record for that animal. That way scientists can monitor the animals growth.

Traditional drink

Traditionally, after a successful peccary or feral pig capture, Brazilian custom is to share a drink of tea. This tea is brewed with the leaves in a large vat, and poured into a sort of horn. The straw is more like a sieve, with a bulb at the bottom, and it sits down in the horn and sifts the tea from the leaves right in the cup. Each person who accepts the drink must drink it completely empty of the tea, then pass it back to the server, who fills it and sends it to the next guest.

If you accept it you must drink it all, we were told. It is a very bitter tea, not at all sweetened. I found it very refreshing, but then I like bitter unsweetened tea. We were told (by Alexine - who cautioned us not to break this tradition) that even if we didn't like it, we had to finish it. If we wanted more, we handed it back and nodded, and our turn would come again after the tea went around once. There is not an option to change your mind.

Holding the baby

After the team measured and weighed all the animals, Alexine took our pictures holding the youngest one, who she estimated to be about 4 months old.

The adults are much larger, about the size of a fat beagle or other hound dog. They eat only fruit and roots from the forest. They also only have one offspring per year and mate for life.

Sleeping giants

This batch of peccary were larger than some of the others. There were six in this capture, these three were afraid to leave one another's side, and after they were sedated, slept calmly together until we took them from the cage to gather data.

These are white-lipped peccary, which you can see from the white lines around their mouths.

Peccary trapping

I had another day on the field tracking and trapping peccary. These little animals are so helpless - they make a funny sound when the grow frightened and the sound is supposed to be a warning call to other peccaries, maybe to stay away.

Today's trap held five peccary. We scanned each of them and only the youngsters needed to have a microchip inserted, which was done with a needle, like giving a shot. Alexine gave them each a sedative before we began working on them. It doesn't put them all the way out, so sometimes we had to cover their eyes with a blanket so they couldn't see - they get scared very easily.

All modes of travel

Where ever we went we had to use whichever mode of travel made the most sense. We hiked, drove in a jeep, rode horses, traveled by motor boat and even rowed canoes. We found out this day that canoes are much heavier than they look. To get it to the oxbow where we needed to work, we had to tow it behind our motorboat, then carry it on our shoulders through the forest (it seemed quite far at the time) and place it in the water in the oxbow in order to get to the center to take the depth and temperature readings.

Water work

After 10 days in the field I have worked in nearly every project going on here in this area of the Pantanal. Days here start early, usually at 6 A.M. (except the birdwatchers, who start at 5).
The last week we worked in canoes and rafts, in the oxbows of the Rio Negro. These areas are hot and humid pockets, isolated only by forest. The temperature was noticeably 15 degrees higher here than on the Rio Negro.

We conducted tests similar to those we did on salinas and baias (pronounced bye-ee-ahs). In each oxbow Don (the scientist in charge of the wetland study) had placed a large pole with measurements for depth, plus attached a thermometer. We took the data in our notebooks.

The amount of insect life, in the water and in the forest, is much higher in an oxbow. Birds love this and surround the area even in the heat of the day. Many of the oxbows, like the salinas and baias, eventually dry up near the end of the dry season. Some of them completely disappear. Others become shallow pools until the next rainy season when they once again become small lakes.

Sites on the range

Just driving along the trails we saw all sorts of animals. One of my favorite was the capybara - the world's largest rodent - about the size of a Labrador retriever. There were dozens of them in groups, along the shores of the salinas, just sunning themselves along the trails. They were not being studied at this location but I was fascinated with them just the same. Reminded me of the guinea pig I used to have as a kid.

Container burial

Each batch of insects would be placed in a container like this one, then labeled by its date, time of collection, salina (each one has a name), meters out into the salina and then the weight and number of specimens.

Reality math

Insect sorting was a daily routine. On many days I volunteered for it because the afternoons could either be spent outside on other activities or inside in the lab with the insects.

Each batch of insects collected at a salina would be emptied into bowls where a volunteer would then divide the insects by species. After each batch was completely separated, a species set would be taken to the microscope for close-up identification, then it would be weighed (scale on the left). This was tricky because we had to weigh the insects in the tray, move them to a container, then weigh the empty tray and subtract that weight from the overall weight taken earlier. The difference was the weight of a single species batch. Yes, it was tedious, but necessary.

Fresh water stats

There were 12 teacher volunteers in my group. There were three scientists on site. Each scientist had a schedule - assigning teams of four to each scientist every day. So many projects going on at once - it made for a lot of variety.

On one of my wetland days we focused on fresh water lakes. We took temperature, salinity, ph and oxygen readings. This required that we wade out into the water because Don wanted readings at various depths.

Fresh water lakes have a lot more plant life, as you can see here, with the water lilies.

Humiliation

There are no roads where we were. Driving was at our own risk. Many times, due to the wetland conditions, our jeep just couldn't get past the mud. Once we had to radio for a tour bus to come and tow us out. Just a little humiliating - towed by a bus!

Close encounter

I enjoyed the river. We traveled by boat and stopped at areas where there was sand along the banks. As we stood in the river fishing these animals waited patiently for our catch.

This is a caiman. This fellow was about 3 feet from me and when I pulled my fish out of the water he rushed up for it. Talk about a close encounter! Don assured us that the caiman were not after humans, only fish, that we were perfectly safe.

More data to write

Once again I was assigned the task of recording the location of each animal. When we located an animal we would take a GPS reading (to establish an accurate location of where we were), record that in the book, along with the identity of the animal and any other data we could get.

If we trapped an animal we would also record his weight and measurements here. Recording data was a key factor throughout this research trip. I gained a new appreciation for having an organized place to record things.

Not just a number

This is the radio-tracking device where we listened for the signal. We had to wear earphones, which attached to the unit, when the truck was moving. When we picked up a signal we would tell our driver, who would stop the truck. Then we would identify which frequency we heard.

Each frequency was assigned to a different animal and each had a number. Some of us preferred naming the animals - since being only a number seems so impersonal!

Wired!

Our next excursion was tracking peccary. This day we concentrated on finding the animals with radio signals and logging which animals were in which territory. This was an all day task and many times we had to climb on top of the truck in order to get a signal at all.

Accuracy is everything

As Don steered the boat he asked one of our volunteer team to read the depth measurement while I recorded it. We also took water meter readings here, and recorded the water temperature, salinity and ph. This is when writing clearly and accurately really matters.

Back to work

After our little fishing trip we headed down the river to a bridge. On this bridge is a ruler where Don (the scientist) can record the depth of the water. This helps him to determine how quickly the water in the Rio Negro rises and falls during any given season.

What a bite!

This specimen was caught by my partner, and was the first catch of the day. This is a piranha and as you can see, you would not want to get bit by this fish.

I caught a lovely pacu, a bit larger and also with teeth, but not nearly as nice as this piranha.

We did not keep these fish because the Rio Negro is a 'catch-release' river. In Brazil, we were told, that this means you can only catch what you will eat that day. We weighed our fish, measured their length, and then returned them to the Rio Negro. Don has established a method of collecting this information from local ranchers that helps monitor fish life in the river throughout the season.

Gone fishin'

We worked very hard those first few days, and as a reward our scientist, Don Eaton, took us our on the motorboat. He told us we had some data to get from the river. We headed down the Rio Negro. Some of that data we gathered with fishing poles.

If you look closely you can see one of my partners in the background, and that we are standing in the water. Remember, there are caiman (a type of aligator) and piranha in this part of the world, and the Rio Negro has more than its share of them.

Positive identification

Some of our insect victims from the salinas were very mature - it was difficult to put them in the preservation solution and kill them. This is a dragon fly nymph, in its last stage of maturity in the lifecycle before reaching adulthood. This one, and its buddies in the tray, will never fly away.

Lab work - our afternoon duties

On days I was assigned to the wetland study, we collected samples in the morning, then had lunch, then in the afternoon we went to the lab to sort and census what we collected. This was a daily process and all the data was collected in a data chart to monitor the progress of each salina.

Sorting was tedious - and often it was difficult to identify species. Our scientist, who was more familiar with the insect life, was there to confirm the identity of all our victims.

More insect samples

We went out again to collect insect samples. This time the salina was not as deep but it still had a lot of insects.

The samples at this salina included all sorts - dragon fly larvae, mosquito larvae, midge, skimmers and even a water scorpion! If you look closely, he is the longest one in the bag.

Computers everywhere

Some people say computers are everywhere, and I guess you can say it is true. We took Don's computer to the field in order to directly import the fresh water data we collected after wading into the baias. He wanted it in immediately in order to know what other data he needed to collect.

All sorts of technology is used today in field research. Computers play only one part, and as you can see, they need not be very new computes, old works just fine, as long as it has the right software and works.

More wetlands

Besides collecting insect samples in the salinas, we also measured water temperature, salt density, ph and a few other statistics collected by the scientist, Don Eaton. This day we managed to collect such information from four salinas. Each volunteer carried and used a different piece of equipment. I was using the meter that measured salt density and temperature.

Third assignment - bird watching - 5 A.M.

Audioblog


One of my favorite activities (next to the wetland studies) was the bird watching. Scientists are trying to monitor and document which species of birds frequent the salinas (salt-water lakes) in the area. Even at 5 A.M. I found this a pleasant experience. So many beautiful birds to watch. We counted over 30 species each time we went out, sometimes more than 50.

Setting traps

There were three different sized traps we used for the peccary. This size could hold one or two. The middle size could hold up to 4 animals and there was a large pen size that could hold up to 8 or 10. We caught animals in all three traps. This one, being so small, was the hardest to set, because someone has to climb inside to do it while someone else (me, in this case) holds the door open so the trap will actually work.

Native mammals - the peccary

My second assignment was to assist in tracking, trapping, measuring and micro-chipping the peccary. For animals that had been previously tagged we used radio transmitters to track them.

Setting the trap was an interesting experience - there was nothing high-tech about it. Someone had to go into the trap, set it using a primitive stick method, bait it with mandioc (a large edible root native to Brazil) then disappear. We checked the traps throughout the day until we found one with a captive animal. Peccary are monitored because they are threatened by a non-native species of feral (wild) pig, imported to Brazil in the last century.

I thought I would enjoy this part of the trip best, but after doing it I discovered I enjoyed the wetland study a lot more.

PVC - good for everything

This is the 'cage' we used for the sampling in the lake. The cage is made of PVC and we put it together once we got to our location. Then we would measure out 5 markers into the water, 10 meters between each. In the picture it is upside down; the log legs of the cage had to be pressed down into the mud of the salina before we could get to work. Of course, it meant putting our heads under the water to get it down right.

Someplace inside each 10 meter area we would put this cage down into the water and using a screen, filter out all the insect life we could find, in the water, on top of the water and about 2 inches down into the mud under the water. It took a long time to do, and the insects were often very tiny.

None of our subjects could be taken outside of this cage. The purpose of this is to estimate the amount of insect life within each salina based on the amount of life found in this one metric area, and multiplied by the amount of square meters a lake contains.

Digital meters

These are the digital meters we used to take the readings in the water. They measured salinity, temperature, alkalinity, ph and oxygen. We also took a water sample from each lake, both fresh and saltwater, and the river, for further analysis.

First assignment - get wet!

Our first day on the field was quite chilly and I was assigned to the team going into a salina (salt water lake). We had to collect insect samples inside one square meter of area - completely deplete it of all living things visible to the eye. We had to do this five times - one time for each 10 meters out into the lake, so that we covered 50 meters in all.

Scientists are trying to understand why birds come to a saltwater lake - what insect life grows here and how much. It was previously thought that birds would not be able to feed in salinas, but this idea has been erased, thanks to specimens like we collected this day.

Birds galore!

The first day we were there we counted 42 species of birds - most of which none of us had ever seen outside a zoo. The most spectacular bird was the Jabiru - a bird the size of a human, standing over 5 feet tall with a wingspan of 8 - 9 feet.

Rio Negro from the air

Since I didn't get airsick, I was able to take a few shots as we flew over the Rio Negro, one of the tributaries of the Paraguay River that flows through the Pantanal.

Now this is flying!

After 16 hours in a large Delta 757, 3 more hours in a commuter plane from Sao Paulo to Campo Grande, then another 2 hours in a van from Campo Grande to Aquiduanna, we arrived at our next air transportation. This flight would take 2 more hours, and is the only way to reach the Fazenda Rio Negro, where we would be staying. Some of the group were less than thrilled with the size of this aircraft, but I thought it was great fun.