— — the floodplain the river remembers.
“The largest tropical wetland in the world, mostly in Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. Every year the rivers spill and the plain becomes shallow water for months; when the water retreats, the cattle, capybara, and jaguar share the dry channels. The Transpantaneira road runs south from Poconé on raised earth, with wooden bridges that count toward a hundred.
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The Pantanal covers roughly 150,000 to 195,000 square kilometres across western Brazil and into eastern Bolivia and Paraguay. It is fed by the upper Paraguay River and its tributaries (the Cuiabá, the Taquari, the Miranda) and rises and falls on an annual cycle of flood and recession. UNESCO designated the Brazilian core a Biosphere Reserve in 2000. Most of the land remains in cattle ranches, the fazendas integrated into the seasonal hydrology of the basin.
The flood pulse defines the year. From November through March the headwaters in the Cerrado highlands release rain into the basin, the rivers overflow their banks, and around 80 percent of the plain becomes shallow water. From July through October the water recedes, fish concentrate in the remaining channels, and birds and large predators follow. The cycle has run unbroken across the basin for thousands of years and shapes every life the wetland holds.
The dry season, July through October, is the window for wildlife. The Transpantaneira, a 145-kilometre raised earth road, runs south from Poconé to Porto Jofre and crosses well over a hundred wooden bridges. Pousadas along the road run morning and afternoon safaris by boat, jeep, and on foot. Porto Jofre is the principal jumping-off point for jaguar safaris on the Cuiabá and Piquiri rivers, where the cats are most reliably seen anywhere in the Americas.