Over the holidays I had an amazing opportunity to travel around southern Brazil for two weeks with my partner and his family. During this time we visited places such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Foz do Iguacu, and the Pantanal. Everywhere we went was a wonderful experience, but my favorite part was staying at the Refugio da Ilha in the Pantanal. Refugio da Ilha is a wildlife refuge focused around maintaining habitat for a variety of native creatures, but particularly birds. Each of the guest rooms were named after native bird species and they had giant feeders around the house grounds that were constantly bombarded with all kinds of native parrots, waterfowl, and songbirds I had never seen in real life before.
There were mango trees with the fruit picked clean by parakeets and countless other types of wildlife living happily thanks to the efforts of the staff. There was one particular macaw at the house who loved being near people and causing trouble, and at one point tried eating one of our cameras. He was a very sweet bird, and at one point I saw him successfully land on the shoulder of another guest who was trying to go for a swim.
We went on river boat tours through the wetlands looking for some of the more elusive water-bound species, at one point a caiman even swam directly beneath our boat and made my partner jump out of his seat. All kinds of birds lived by the water, many for the fish and even more for the bugs. At some points we wandered into a southern screamer’s territory and they really live up to the name. One was screeching at us from the top of a tree to warn its family by the water and would not stop until we were far away.
On horseback and truck tours we explored the fields housing some of the more inland creatures. The sparse tall trees are a macaw’s favorite sleeping spot and the tall grass and shrubs serve as a home for anteaters, capybaras, and rheas. The lowland fields are essential habitat for these species and have been swiftly depleted due to the need for cow fields or other agricultural stock, so the people of Refugio da Ilha have been fighting to preserve them.
We took thousands of photos on the trip, and staying at Refugio da Ilha was an amazing experience and spending time with all these animals in their natural habitat. I do what I can to go out and experience nature as much as possible, but never before have I seen so much wildlife living harmoniously in one space. Sitting by the bird feeders with my sketchbook and camera made me all the more excited for any future opportunities to do something like this again, and I would count myself very lucky if it could be a part of my livelihood.
