Drinking Jaguar

Posted on Sun 17 August 2025

While visiting Brazil a few years back we decided to make a detour to the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetlands - the name literally means "abundance of swamps". The Pantanal is famous for its wildlife, including Jaguars. Peak viewing time is usually the dry season, as this is when there's the least vegetation, and the river banks are most exposed. We however happened to be there during rainy season - lush greenery and beautiful colors, but also dense plant cover everywhere that gives a Jaguar plenty of places to hide.

We spent about two days from sunrise to sunset on a small boat, cruising up and down the river while looking for Jaguar traces, before we encountered a pair of cats on a riverbank early in the morning, just before daybreak. The conditions for this photo were especially challenging: it was still relatively dark, the Jaguars where underneath trees, further obscuring any light, and I was taking the photo from a small wobbly boat. In this moment I was extremely grateful for the excellent low-light performance and image stabilization of the Sony - I could push the shutter time to 1/80th of a second while still getting a sharp enough image. And even at ISO 3200 the colors are great and there is barely any noise!

Tags: mammal, jaguar, south america, wildlife