Location: Porto Jofre • Pantanal • Brazil
Year: 2015
Exhibition: "Todas As Manhãs Do Mundo" • Senac-SP + NatGeo Latin America • São Paulo, Brazil, 2016.
Awards: "2017 Wiki Loves Earth" • 2nd place Brazilian round • 2nd place international round.
Description: This jaguar was spotted during a filming expedition for NatGeo Latin America. The Pantanal, in Brazil, is perhaps the country's best place for spotting jaguars – known locally as "onça pintada", these are rather similar to African leopards, and are considered South America's largest cats. Formerly, these creatures would be systematically decimated so that cattle farms could be safely established without losses of cows to these predators. Driven to the brink of extinction, this process was thankfully halted and is now being slowly reversed in the Pantanal. This is because the local population realised keeping the native wildlife alive earns them much more profit in the ecotourism business – to the point where the odd loss of cattle to predation is completely justified economically. The Pantanal wetlands is criscrossed with rivers – tourists there will be taken on motorized boats throughout them and periodically spot local wildlife coming to the shores for water and food. The key to staying safe is to remain inside the boat, separated by the predators by the body of water.
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Product: Unframed print.
Smiling Jaguar
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