Pantanal Scientific Expedition

The Pantanal is the world’s largest wetlands located at the edge of the Brazilian Amazon. The ecosystem overflows with unique and fascinating species including its apex predator, the jaguar. Thousands of migratory birds converge here every year to feed and nest before heading back north traveling as far as the Arctic Circle. Despite its beauty and abundance, this biodiversity hotspot is threatened by dam building, dredging of its rivers, agrochemical pollution, and climate change. A team of Brazilian scientists working from Taiamã, an island in the Paraguay River, are monitoring changes and working to protect its incredible biodiversity.

Jaguars patrol the banks in the Encontro das Aguas (Meeting of the Waters) National Park in Brazil.
Giant river otters of the Pantanal feed on fish in a tributary off Rio Paraguai in Brazil.
Ranchers move cattle at sunset in the Pantanal.
A songbird hitches a ride on a capybara to transport it insect dinner to the other side of the river. Deer of the Pantanal.View fullsize
Deer of the Pantanal.
A colony of wood storks fill the tree tops in the Pantanal.
Biologist from the University of Mato Gross test water quality along the Rio Paraguai in Brazil.
Songbirds in the Pantanal.
Bladders of the water hyacinth that allow these aquatic plants to float, a major part of the wetland ecosystem.
White egrets gather by the dozens in September in the Pantanal.
A juvenile alligator
Biologists travel by rivers in the Pantanal in order to reach field study sites.
The Taiamã Research Station on an island surrounded by rivers in the western Pantanal.
The Taiamã Research Station on an island surrounded by rivers in the western Pantanal.
Aerial view of the rivers that break their banks to flood the Pantanal in the wet season.
Aerial view of the rivers that break their banks to flood the Pantanal in the wet season.
Researchers working from boats to study the Pantanal ecosystem.
Biologists and graduate students from the University of Mato Grosso scan the skies during a bird survey in the Pantanal.
Biologists testing water quality and visibility in the Rio Paraguai.
Carolina da Silva, one of the leading experts on the Pantanal ecosystem explains the floating hyacinth flowers and plants to graduate students.
Testing water quality in the Rio Paraguai.
Graduate students from the University of Mato Grosso use a quadrant to collect plant samples off the front of the boat.
Carolina da Silva, one of the leading experts on the Pantanal ecosystem collects samples of water hyacinth from the Rio Paraguai.
Sorting plant samples at the Taiama Research Station
A jaguar skeleton in the field lab at Taiama Field Research Station
A ranger points out the remains of a caiman left behind from a jaguar kill.
Ground nesting birds use the leaf litter to protect their eggs.
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