Most of you will have already seen this picture but, as the highlight of this year's stay in the Amazon, this jaguar was the only way I could possibly conclude my online advent calendar. It was sitting on the bank of the Rio Cristalino just a week before I left as I headed upriver with two guests following a morning rainstorm, hence the hazy quality to the picture. After a total of one year spent on the reserve, it is only the second one I have seen, and it sat there watching us for fifteen minutes before turning tail and disappearing into the forest. The Dutch couple in question were perhaps the luckiest guests I have ever guided as, in addition to this magnificent beast, they got to see four species of monkey, yesterday's poison dart frog (the first sighting of the season), three tapirs, both otters, a southern tamandua, yellow-footed tortoise, red-tailed boa, a group of nine Dark-winged Trumpeters drinking at the riverbank, a male Amazonian Umbrellabird, all three large macaws, and a magnificent rainbow to boot.
Their luck even rubbed off on me as the same boat trip as the jaguar also produced a female (or immature male) Crimson Topaz hummingbird, a very scarce bird at Cristalino and a new one for me, the last of just five lifers I saw there this summer.
Happy holidays to all my readers!
