The Pantanal has the greatest concentration of fauna in the Americas. People outside Brazil know only the Amazon. . . it's a shame because the Pantanal is a very important ecological place (Dr. Maria Tereza Jorge Pádua, Former Director, Brazil's National Parks).
The Amazon gets the press coverage, but the Pantanal is a better place to see wildlife. The dense foliage of the Amazon makes it difficult to observe the animals, but in the open marshes of the Pantanal, wildlife is much easier to spot. If you like to see animals in their natural environment, the Pantanal should not be missed.
With a total area of almost 195 000 square kilometres (or 75 000 square miles), the Pantanal is the largest wetland in the world. The vast majority of it is in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it also extends into Mato Grosso and the separate countries of Paraguay and Bolivia, which neighbour Brazil.
This area is an unparalleled wildlife sanctuary of spectacular beauty, an ecological paradise containing hundreds of species of birds, thousands of varieties of butterflies, myriads of brightly colored flowers, and shoals of fish. Capuchin and Howler monkeys, capybaras, toucans, anacondas, caimans and tapirs help create an aquatic and sylvan theater of sights and sounds. The endangered jaguar, and increasingly rare Hyacinthine macaws and giant river otters, all make their home in the Pantanal. The Pantanal also provides incalculable economic benefits. It offers a huge area for water purification and groundwater discharge and recharge, climate stabilization, water supply, flood abatement, and an extensive, transport system, among numerous other important functions. And yet, despite the region’s beauty and remarkable environmental and economic value, the Pantanal remains poorly known and faces an uncertain future stemming from a myriad of socioeconomic pressures.
During the rainy season, between October and March, the Pantanal is practically impassable by land. The rest of the year, the soil form an excellent pasture for livestock. Because about 80% of the wetlands are submerged during the wet season, the species here include aquatic ones, making it an even more diverse and fascinating destination to consider. The water can rise by up to five metres during the wet season. The daily highs average an annual mean of 25 degrees Celsius.
However, summer days have been known to soar to a scorching 40 degrees, while winter nights can plummet to zero.
The Pantanal’s dry season extends from April to October of each year. During this time, it is possible to access the region by road. During the wet season, however, visitors may be forced to enter only by aeroplane. Because this area is popular amongst tourists, there is ample accommodation available, as well as organised tours and activities. Some of these activities include:
• Horse riding
• Hiking and walking trails
• Game viewing and photography
• Exploring the wetlands on canoe or boat
• Catch-and-release fishing
• Bird watching (particularly rewarding over October and November)
Even during warmer seasons, the nights in the Pantanal can become crisp and cold. Therefore, tourists are urged to bring some warm clothing, regardless of when they are visiting.
One of the region form the Mato Grosso Pantanal National Park located on the border of MS and MT states.
The Serra Dourada State Park comprises a mosaic of vegetation and it is one the most conserved and diverse mountainous areas of Goiás state.
The park is located in the districts of Goiás, Mossâmedes and Buriti de Goiás, located 131 km from the capital, Goiania - Go, central-western Brazil. With approximate area of 30,000 acres, encompasses most of the area of Environmental Protection.
This Serra Dourada (Golden Mountain Range) was named after the gold pioneers found with the Indians in one mount born river, in 1725, where today is the City of Goias, involved by part of its counter forts.
Trailing this path is truly travelling back in time, not only because of the scenery and the culinary, but also because of the landscapes surrounding the cities, like the State Park of Pireneus and the State Park of Serra Dourada.
The park is situated on the plateau of Serra Dourada (Golden Mountain Range) with walk through mazes (City of Stones), superimposed sandstone rocks, undergrowth, endemic plants and rocky cerrado.
To get to the place you need to come to a trail about 40 minutes walk from the city center. To reach the top you spend on average 1h30min by a steep road, which can be done on foot or off-road vehicles. From the soil of the Serra Dourada, artists usually take colored sand to elaborate artwork and its unique beautiful color sands have thousand of hues.
Most of the rivers around the region are born in the slopes of the Serra Dourada, where live almost-extinct large felines like the Brazilian panthers, of different sizes, endangered by farmers supported hunters. The Federal University of Goias has an Ecological Station in Serra Dourada for fauna and flora research and protection. Better take guides; talk first with tourism services in town.
There is a lot more to see for ecotourists in Serra Dourada, as daylong tracks, medium effort trails, camping and exploring its fauna and flora.
Search: ecological guide
The Emas National Park is located between the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul in the Center-West Region of Brazil. Literally meaning "rhea National Park". With an area of about 132 thousand hectares, covers part of the municipalities of Mineiros, Chapadão do Céu and Serranópolis in the State of Goiás, and Costa Rica, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Due to its length, integrity of habitat, richness of fauna and presence of rare and threatened species, the reserve is one of the most important protected areas of the cerrado biome. It has recently been included in the priority actions for biodiversity conservation in the Cerrado and Pantanal and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
At well over 1000 square kilometers of rolling grassy fields and patches of swamp forest, the park is home to a variety of large mammals, including puma, ocelot, collared peccary, white-lipped peccary, marsh deer, red brocket, gray brocket, black howler monkey, capybara, Maned wolf, Brazilian Tapir, and Giant Anteater, and it also shelters a number of threatened bird species, including the recently rediscovered Cone-Billed Tanager. But while the promise of Emas is indeed great, the bounty of the site highly dependent on season and luck, and access tightly controlled by the inclinations of a guide.
Emas National Park also holds a small jaguar population, perhaps consisting of about 10-12 animals. Only about 40% of the reserve is a good Jaguar habitat.
In fact, almost the entire park was wiped out by fire in 2010, decimating the once thriving Giant Anteater population. These burned areas are excellent places to find terrestrial birds that normally secret themselves away deep in the tall grass, including Ocellated Crake and Lesser Nothura, but they have also become stages for adaptation, as Coal-Crested Finch, Campo Miner, and White-Winged Nightjar have all evolved to utilize recently burned areas for different biological purposes. Towards the end of the dry season, diverse flocks of migratory seedeaters in breeding plumage surge through the park, including rarities such as Rufous-Rumped, Chestnut, Dark-Throated, and Black-Bellied Seedeaters.(BirdingBrazil)
Cerrado is the biome that covers the sprawling Planalto Central, the central plains of Brazil. It consists of several different habitat types. So unique is Cerrado that several of the Portuguese words for the habitat types have been adapted to English. Grasslands, or campo, cover much of the region. Campo sujo has shorter grass and sparse woody vegetation. Woodlands of short, twisted tree with waxy leaves and cork-like bark make up cerrado, not to be confused with Cerrado, the biome name. Gallery forests are moist forests that follow the watercourses. Some 90% of the plant and animal species of the Cerrado are found in the gallery forests.
The park holds the greatest concentration of Blue-and-Yellow Macaws outside Amazonia, and blue-winged, red-shouldered and red-bellied Macaws can also be seen. The park headquarters building for scientists are visited daily by a pair of bare-faced currasows, white Woodpeckers, streamer-tailed Tyrants and other showy birds.
In addition to the mammals and large birds, the park is known for other bird specialties. (visit: focustours)
The cupinzeiros (tall termites houses)
In the early stages of the rainy season the cupinzeiros (termites houses) perform the bio-luminescence phenomenon which consists in the irradiation of a blue greenish phosphorescent light, produced by small larvae stuck to the leafs in search for food. The result is a very beautiful night show.
This park holds the largest concentration of cupinzeiros per square metre in the whole world. In about 25 million registered termites houses in preserved area, the fireflies were a sideshow, especially during spring nights. Between the holes dug in a kind of "natural building", insect larvae emit an intense greenish light and give a show to form different lighting points.
The Emas National Park is a place that requires different observation, attentive to detail, and use sensitivity to perceive the richness of life adjustments such as the Indaiá palm trees with trunks buried or trees with very thick bark to resist fire that selects life natural and at the same time makes everything grow again.
For all this diversity, gets to be frustrating leave the park knowing that knew very little of what nature presents there. Even those who live on site and research about it, know they don't know the Cerrado, and not knowing is an exciting feature an exciting mystery.
Visitation: With the payment of an entrance fee of R$ 6,00 (for local people) and R$13,00 for tourists, you can visit a restricted area of the park without tracking guide. But the rides are more productive by hiring a good local guide who helps the tourist in the observation and interpretation of natural diversity. The municipal authorities inform the phones associations of guides. The Visitation and the need of the guide must be checked in advance, because of the impending change of management plan.
There are three types of ride / observation:
1. Interpretive trail: identification of animals by the tracks, feces and food consumed; identification of vegetation.
2. Motorized trail: by bus or car, for observation of animals hidden in the cerrado and those who do not have time to hide with a faster approach than in hiking.
3. Hiking in the woods or field: where you can touch the nature, feel the way to see up close birds, lizards, armadillos, anteaters and other animals.
The trails at Parque das Emas are very extensive - some with more than 40 km, and must be traveled by car. Currently incursions walking is not allowed on some trails; overnight in the park is also not allowed, but the tourists have lodging structure in the park nearby farms and guesthouses.
The Formoso River, and other rivers, provide conditions for canoeing and rafting outside the park boundaries. There are conservation areas outside the park that also deserve to be visited.
