By Kate Wickers
With no small amount of excitement, I’m watching as a herd of wild capybaras (the world’s largest rodent) stroll web-footed along the banks of Paranoa Lake in Brasilia. What these giant cousins of the guinea pig are offering is a tantalising glimpse of what lies in store when I head deep into the Cerrado, the world’s most biodiverse savannah that covers 21% of Brazil and teems with wildlife.
A few days in Brazil’s capital, however, shouldn’t be missed as there’s nowhere in the world quite like it. Awash with futuristic architecture, it was planned by architect Oscar Niemeyer, known as the ‘concrete poet’, in 1955, and was the first modern city to be protected by UNESCO for its distinctive, brutalist design.
I spend two days marvelling at its buildings, including Catedral Metropolitana with its frame of 16 bowed ribs and The Congresso Nacional, with UFO-like roofs, and then I hit the road.
My destination is the border point of the Bahia, Goias, and Minas Gerais states; a six-hour, 333-kilometre road trip across the country’s farming heartlands (for those who wish to get there quicker, a light aircraft can be chartered to make the 50-minute flight to Pousada Trijunção).
On safari in the heart of the Cerrado
The Pousada is set in 33,000 hectares of protected land and has a ranch-like feel, constructed from wood with a red-tiled roof, which blends well with its environment. My suite may be rustic but still feels luxurious, with handmade soft furnishings and curios from Artesol, a non-profit organisation that generates income for Brazilian artisans.
Drawing adventurers here is the opportunity to spot the maned wolf (the largest member of the Canidae family in South America), whose fight for survival, within this critically endangered environment due to soya production, was documented for Planet Earth III’s episode on Desert & Grasslands that aired in October 2023.
The birdlife is another huge pull, with 850 species recorded in the region, and 270 in the grounds of the Pousada alone.
I’m up at sunrise to climb the Pousada’s wooden watchtower, joined by early rising blue-and-yellow macaw, which streak through the sky in boisterous pairs, while the Savanna hawk stands stock-still and silent on the highest branches, ready to swoop down for breakfast.
Expert ornithologist Vinicius ‘Vinny’ Vianna is my guide, and our first stop by safari jeep is at a raised sandy bank with several openings.
“These are where armadillo and burrowing owl live side by side,” he tells me, conjuring up pleasing images of these unlikely neighbours wishing one another a “good morning”. Once the sun is fully up, we soon spot red-crested cardinal, peach-fronted parakeet, and common tody-flycatcher, all with eye-catching plumage that wouldn’t look amiss in Rio’s famous Carnival. By 10 am, I’ve added 20 new birds to the tally, the prize of which is the toco toucan with its gleaming red and yellow beak.
In pursuit of the elusive maned wolf
PICTURED: Onçafari vehicle. Photo Credit – Pousada Trijunção.
It’s an hour before dusk, as the sky is turning tangerine, when I set out to track the maned wolf with Oncafari, an organisation that combines ecotourism with scientific study and wildlife preservation, including securing radio collars on the wolves for their own protection. We’re in search of an alpha female named Savanna.
“We’re getting closer. Keep a lookout for the wolf’s droppings. They like to defecate on high ground so that the breeze will carry their scent as a warning to rivals,” conservationist and guide, Chiara Bortoloto, tells us as she adjusts the antennae and holds it aloft.
PICTURED: Chiara holding the antennae aloft. Photo Credit – Kate Wickers.
Patience and luck are required to spot the wolf as they’re shy and predominantly nocturnal. To put this in perspective, the Planet Earth film crew spent over three years filming Savanna’s mother, Nhorinha. As the signal on the antennae intensifies, I reach for binoculars, and through the tangle of scrub we receive our first glimpse of the wolf’s thick, vibrant russet-red coat and bushy white tail. Often described as a fox on stilts, this elegant creature has impossibly long, slender legs and equally impressive, large ears, currently alert to our whispers.
PICTURED: Kate and her son watching a maned wolf. Photo Credit – Kate Wickers.
From Chiara, I learn more about her complicated home life. She refuses to be monogamous (as is their usual habit) and prefers to take partners at whim, turning her pretty nose up at patriarchy and maintaining her alpha status. We track her for around 30 minutes, each glimpse of her as spellbinding as the last, until the sky morphs to inky mauve and she trots away to hunt for cavy and other small rodents.
On our way back to the Pousada, other creatures of the night catch our attention, among them four squabbling, screeching barn owls, and a six-banded armadillo, its silvery armour shining in the moonlight.
A final reverie in the Cerrado
Next day, on fat-tyred bikes, we’re halfway through a six-kilometre ride to Macaw Lagoon (named for the birds that nest here in the hollowed-out holes of dead palms), when three red-legged seriema join us. Known as the Brazilian roadrunner, and one of very few birds to have eyelashes, they can reach speeds of up to 60km per hour. Cartoon-like, they trot in front of us, as if setting the pace, and I soak up every magical second of this extraordinary race.
PICTURED: Kate on a fat-tyred bike ride to Macaw Lagoon. Photo credit – Kate Wickers.
Back in the safari jeep, we drive slowly by the semi-wild enclosures of 12 tapir, on the brink of being released back into the wild. Their home is within the Trijunção Estate’s conservation and breeding centre, which also cares for rhea (prehistoric-looking cousins of the ostrich and emu), and 350 tortoises (yellow-footed and red-footed), most rescued from the illegal pet trade.
The tapir is the most peaceful and heaviest of the Cerrado’s mammals, and we watch as a pony-sized adult plods through the long grass, its curious trunk-like upper lip and nose twitching on the scent of fresh mombin, also known as hog plum.
I remain mesmerised by the environment during the relaxation periods between excursions. Sitting by the swimming pool, my book remains closed, my AirPods in their case, as I listen to every rustle in the grass (on one occasion, I spot a sharp-nosed monkey lizard. On another, it’s two pampas deer that emerge with noses twitching) and watch the come and go of glittering-throated emeralds (a type of hummingbird), attracted by the bright yellow flowers of the ipe, Brazil’s national tree that blooms in August and September.
After dinner, I climb the watchtower to star gaze one last time, marvelling at the Milky Way’s gassy dust-filled bands, where I spot so many shooting stars that I run out of wishes (number one on my list of longings is a return here to see a jaguar, currently in the very early stages of habituation). Under this star-studded sky, a tropical screech owl has the last word, startling me as it flies by trilling, its wings in perfect silhouette against the buriti palms.
PICTURED: Screech owl. Photo Credit – Kate Wickers.
Your journey to Brazil’s untamed savannah awaits
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