On the Expedition
Explore the unique community ecology of large carnivores in Brazil's cerrado ecosystem.
You will use 4x4 trucks to explore this world-class park, home of 55 species of mammals, 60 species of reptiles, and more than 370 species of birds. Your team will work with Jaguar Conservation Fund's team to radio-track mammals and discover their habits and needs. You will conduct a mammal census, collect and analyze scat, and perform behavioral observations. You will also assist with camera-trapping, data input, and data processing. On occasion, you will have the opportunity to help capture and radio-collar carnivores, including pumas, maned wolves, crab-eating foxes, ocelots, and jaguars. In recreational spare time, you can enjoy swimming and birdwatching in the unique cerrado environment.
Meals and Accommodations
Your team will share a comfortable house with four bedrooms and a full bath, bordering on Emas National Park. The house has hot showers, flush toilets, electricity, a full kitchen, and other amenities, such as laundry and bar service. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are provided at the house by a local cook. Meals will feature Brazilian favorites, including rice, beans, beef, chicken, salads, and vegetables. Snacks and fruits will also be available.
About the Research Area
Emas National Park is part of the Pantanal’s Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO Human Heritage Reserve, and is situated in central Brazil in the extreme southwest of Goiás state. The park contains large tracts of grassland plains, small patches of shrub fields, marshes and riparian forest grassland.
With 132,000 hectares, it is one of the country’s largest Cerrado National Parks and probably the last to protect relevant resident populations of grassland jaguars, pumas, maned wolves, bush dogs and hoary-foxes in this biome. At least 13 endangered mammal species are found in the park, which is considered to be one of the best sites for observing large Cerrado fauna. The area is in the range of 17 carnivore species, of which eight are listed as endangered.
The park is also one of the best places to spot fruit-eating vertebrates such as the tapir and many birds, including toco toucans and rheas. To be in the home of the ostrich-like rheas, scarlet macaws, pampas deer, giant armadillos, herds of peccaries, giant anteaters, foxes, tapirs, jaguars and other unique creatures will be an unforgettable experience.