HOME AND AWAY

Pantanal comprises around 230,000 square km devided between two states, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul; it also extends beyond Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay. The plain slopes 1-3 cm in every kilometer from north to south and west to east to the basin of the Rio Paraguay and is rimmed by low mountains. From these, 175 rivers flow into the Pantanal and after the heavy summer rains they burst their banks, as does the Paraguay river itself, to create vast shallow lakes broken by patches of high ground and stands of Cerrado forest. Plankton then swarm in the water form a biological soup that contains as many as 500 million microalgae per litre. Millions of amphibians and fish spawn or migrate to consume them. And these in turn are preyed upon by waterbirds and reptiles. Herbivorous mammals graze on the stands of the water hyacinth, sedge and savannah grass and at the top of food chain lie South America’s great predators – the jaguar, the ocelot, the maned wolf and the yellow anaconda.