South America’s second largest land mammal is no less an object of intrigue. The South American tapir, which can live up to 30 years if a jaguar doesn’t bite its lifespan short, looks like a developing elephant nipped in the bud and finished with the ears of a hippopotamus. But all comparison ends there, as this precious species inhabits an altogether different continent, fighting its vulnerability to extinction.
The endangered giant river otter brings up the trio of glossy-brown-coated mammals sporting a predilection for aquatics, with the added distinction of being the longest weasel. And perhaps because it haunts the Amazon River and the Pantanal with unique vocalizations, it is known by a variety of imaginative names, among which ‘River Wolf’ and ‘Water Dog’ are chief, but when ‘periscoping’ in the midst of a fishing hunt, it most closely resembles a limited aquatic edition of a meerkat!
Reptilian attractions are not trivial in the very least. While anacondas, who can swallow down prey as big as marsh deer and as unwieldy as caiman, are seen in the swamps, the caiman themselves are material for intriguing observation and rewarding photography, as they lie close to water hyacinth or on a stunted tree stump looking like living fossils.
And then there are the lovely birds that are known to have roughly the same effect on man as trance music. Toucans, with their garden-scissors-sized beaks and beautifully coloured eyes and necks, the astounding red-and-green macaws and hyacinth macaws in their resplendent plumes, and the Amazon kingfisher lead the ‘aero show’, while the sight of a jabiru stork tending to her young on the nest in the midst of sensational baby-pink piuva flowers provides the kind of moments that life is worth living for.
But the weirdest of them all is the giant anteater — the largest species of anteater anywhere in the world, the best chance to see which lies on the optional pre-Tour extension to Bonito. Although its diet is composed of the minuscule creatures that ants and termites are, it can grow up to seven feet in length, and is one of the few mammals with absolutely no teeth, for the simple reason that it doesn’t need any. Its peculiar looks, however, are bound to yield images with a cutting bite!
Finally, the showcase species, the capuchin and howler monkeys, ensure that touring a place with lofty expectations was truly never so justified.
