[Leica] Pantanal

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

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