[Leica] Pantanal

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

That is some pussy cat, Jayanand! I've seen plenty of Jaguars but they were 
all cars.

It has amazing camoflage and blends so well in with the background. Whose 
feet were those on the flatbed? I presume he or she was extremely nervous!

Did you also get to see any of the olympics?

Douglas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jayanand Govindaraj" <jayanand at gmail.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>; "PSM" 
<psm-1857 at googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2016 6:09 PM
Subject: [Leica] Pantanal


> Just returned from the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical freshwater
> wetlands in Brazil spanning the Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul
> provinces, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a curious place. Though
> we imagine the Brazilian ecosystem to be very rich and bursting with life,
> in truth vast tracts of it, like the Pantanal, have soil which is
> nutritionally poor. Therefore the land cannot sustain too many mammals,
> which are scarce and rare, but have resulted in an explosive variety of
> birds who feed on the abundant food in the canopy. I had gone to see and
> photograph the normally shy, reclusive and very secretive Jaguars, because
> a small accessible population of around 25 had got used to humans, and
> would show themselves, practically the only place in the world where this
> is possible. We were lucky that we got one early, at close quarters, on 
> the
> banks of an oxbow lake, in a place called Rio Claro, where we had gone to
> photograph birds, and where jaguars are generally never to be seen. We saw
> a few capybara (the world's largest rodent, the size of a well fed pig)
> squealing and frantically swimming across the lake, and when we
> investigated, there she was! In fact, the surprise at seeing a jaguar at
> this place was so great that I forgot to change my settings from those I
> was using to photograph diving/flying White-necked Heron, and so all of
> these are at 1/3200+ @ f8 at ISO 3200, with an EV of -1.67 stops!
>
> Here are four looks at the majestic cat:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Brazil/Pantanal/Pantanal-20160812-2529.jpg.html
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Brazil/Pantanal/Pantanal-20160812-2580.jpg.html
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Brazil/Pantanal/Pantanal-20160812-2594.jpg.html
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Brazil/Pantanal/Pantanal-20160812-2736.jpg.html
>
> Please see LARGE
>
> Comments and criticism, as ever, welcome!
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
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