Jaguar Detectives

Category: Jaguar Corridor Expedition | Date: Nov 12 2008 | By: jaguardetectives

Most important accounts and findings: Definitely a long day! We woke up really early and, after a hearty breakfast, reassumed our journey, but could count very little on the wind. About one third of our route was taken using the 15 hp outboard engine that we have for situations like this and for riskier maneuvers. We continued our route along the original riverbed, that is, the natural bed before dam.

…could count very little on the wind.

Using the GPS (Global Positioning System) and the navigation notebooks from the Infrastructure and Waterways Division of the Ministry of Transports website, we tried to plan a safe route and stick to it, away from hull hazards caused by the aquatic cemetery of submerged tree trunks of what has once been part of the Atlantic Forest of the States of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. Our average speed along the day was of about 3.5 knots, with no stopovers along the 38 miles between the mouth of the Santo Anastácio River, in the municipality of Presidente Epitácio, where we had stayed overnight, until the mouth of the Quiteróiz, in Anaurilândia, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. The landscape along this stretch was quite repetitive and monotonous. Paliteiros , inundated forests, and collapsing banks on the São Paulo side.

Using the GPS (Global Positioning System) and the navigation notebooks.

Paliteiros , inundated forests, and collapsing banks on the São Paulo side.

The first impression is that, little by little, the lake formed by the dam of the Paraná River is swallowing the State of São Paulo margins. Considering the size of the sheet of water and the continuous waves that hit the margins, the Permanent Conservation Areas (APP`s), which should be reforested to restore gallery forests to protect river margins, are, in fact, mostly open pastures affected by a slow process of fluvial erosion. Many farmers report that, in the last four or five years, they have lost from 50 to 80 meters of banks. It means that, in some cases, areas initially demarcated as APPs do not exist anymore; they have been completely swallowed by the river and are contributing to silting, reducing the useful life of the reservoir and its hydroelectric power plant.
It is worth remembering that the stretch upstream from Sérgio Motta Hydroelectric Power Plant (Porto Primavera), where we still are, do not provide connections with the Biodiversity Corridor of the Paraná River. Making it simple, this stretch connects nowhere to nowhere, since there are no Conservation Units or significant forest areas along the course. Tomorrow (September 4), we are going to perform a locking operation at Sérgio Motta Power Plant, navigating downstream, and entering the original and undammed bed of the Paraná River.
After the locking operation, we will have started the journey through the northern section of the Corridor, in areas close to the Ecological Station of Caiuá (State of Paraná), at the confluence with the Paranapanema River, near Morro do Diabo State Park (State of São Paulo). Floodplains inhabited by jaguars, marsh deers and other species from the semi-deciduous forests of the Upper Paraná and the floodplains associated to them await the passage of Pasárgada.
The afternoon was extremely stressful, since our original plans did not include reaching the other margin in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. We had to leave the mapped watercourse, getting closer to shallow waters than we would have wished, amid many dead tree trunks. But it will well worth it. Our objective in going to Anaurilândia was to meet a good friend and one of the greatest jaguar (ex) hunters in Brazil: Carlos Plateiro. Tomorrow morning, Carlos will meet us in the banks of the Paraná River, at the back of Sete Belo Farm, where we will spend the night. In the seventies and eighties, Carlos used to be hired by farmers in Mato Grosso do Sul to kill the jaguars that predated cattle in the region. He killed more than 200 felines in his career as a hunter. However, today he is on our side, helping IPÊ, as well as many other research institutions all over Brazil, in ecological hunts to capture jaguars and pumas to attach radio-collars to them and monitor these animals for scientific purposes.

On conservation side. From guns to anesthetized darts. Carlos and sedated jaguars.

Many recollections and advice come to our minds in our daily routine on the boat. Once, Amyr Klink said in an interview that most people have bucolic views of expeditions and, according to him, this has even been a reason for problems with crew members who imagined they were simply setting off on a leisure trip to read, write, and pass their time. Sure, in their dreams! The truth is that there is no time for anything! He could not be more right, after all he is Amyr Klink!!!
We woke up before dawn and, after herculean effort, could sit down at the end of the day, around 9 PM, to write these lines you are reading. There are so many details, so much organization, attention, and fatigue that it is hard to think of anything else than going to sleep. But… who wants a different life? Definitely not us!!!
Other recollection comes from a passage in the book Karluk, which tells the story of a namesake sailboat that (almost) went off on an expedition to the Arctic in 1913. There, after freezing and shipwrecking, with their supplies in the last stages, the crew discussed about tea! Yes, tea! And they composed an ode to tea (most of the crew was English) and all it represented to them in those moments of affliction.

The amazing Karluk’s voyage

Here, in the Jaguar Corridor expedition, we will celebrate tereré !!! For those who do not know it, it is made from same herb used for chimarrão , prepared differently, with iced water, preferably very iced water!!! So this is our record in honor of this beverage that saves us from dehydration, in a short ritual that only those used to it know what we are talking about. Thanks to our friend Toy (Luis António Dassan), a pioneer in sailboating on the Paraná River, for having introduced us to sailing and for an almost endless stock of tereré!

We anchored at 6 PM, on an eastern wind, at half sail, at about 2.2 knots, near Anaurilândia (State of Mato Grosso do Sul) at the mouth of the Quiteróiz River, in front of Sete Belo Farm, in the Mato Grosso do Sul margin.

 Cheers!