Animals in Brazil

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and covers almost half of South America. More than 200 million people live there, most of them near the Atlantic coast, in cities like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, while the interior still holds some of the largest wild areas on the planet. Most of the country is tropical, but the climate changes a lot from region to region: the Amazon is hot and humid all year, the backlands of the northeast are semiarid and suffer long droughts, and the highlands of the south have cold winters with frost and even occasional snow. Its landscapes match that variety. About 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest lies in Brazil, and the country also holds the Cerrado savanna, the dry, thorny Caatinga, found nowhere else, the Atlantic Forest along the coast, the grasslands of the Pampa and the Pantanal, the largest tropical wetland in the world, plus some 7,400 kilometers of beaches, dunes and mangroves.

The land shaped the way Brazilians live. Indigenous peoples lived in the forests long before the Portuguese arrived in 1500, and later sugar, gold, coffee and now soy and cattle pushed farms deep into the interior, often at the cost of the forest. Brazil created its first national park, Itatiaia, in 1937, and today Iguaçu National Park, parts of the Pantanal and the Central Amazon and the Lençóis Maranhenses are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. On the coast, Projeto TAMAR has protected sea turtle nesting beaches since 1980.

Tourism follows the same map. Visitors come for the beaches and mountains of Rio de Janeiro, Iguaçu Falls, boat trips from Manaus into the Amazon, wildlife safaris in the Pantanal and the white dunes and rain filled lagoons of Lençóis Maranhenses. Wildlife follows these contrasts: monkeys, sloths, colorful birds and river dolphins in the forests and rivers, wild cats and caimans in the wetlands, and whales and sea turtles along the coast.

Brazil has some animals that deserve respect, but most visitors never have a problem with them. Venomous snakes are the main risk. The country reports around 30,000 snakebites a year, almost all of them in rural areas, where farm workers step on snakes in fields, forests and the edges of towns. Pit vipers cause most bites, and rattlesnakes live in drier, open areas. Brazil produces its own antivenom and gives it free in public hospitals, so getting to one quickly is what matters most. Wearing boots on trails and never putting your hands into holes or under logs prevents most bites. Large constrictor snakes live in rivers and swamps, but they are not venomous and almost never threaten people.

Wild cats are powerful, yet attacks on people are very rare. Caimans usually slide into the water when people come near, and wild pigs brought from Europe, now spreading across the south, can charge if cornered. At sea, sharks are a real risk in one part of the country: the coast of Pernambuco, mostly around Recife, where more than 80 incidents have been recorded since 1992. Signs mark the most dangerous stretches of beach, so it is best to follow local advice and avoid swimming beyond the reefs or in murky water.

The animals that bring most visitors to Brazil live in very different places, so seeing them means choosing a region and a season. The Pantanal is the best place in the world to see a wild jaguar. From about July to October, in the dry season, boats leave Porto Jofre at the end of the Transpantaneira road and follow the rivers where jaguars rest on the banks. The same trips pass groups of capybaras, the largest rodent in the world, and anacondas lying near the water. Night drives in the Pantanal and the Cerrado give a chance to spot an ocelot, and with luck a cougar or a jaguarundi crossing the road. The maned wolf, the tall, long legged canid that appears on Brazil's 200 reais note, is easiest to see at the Caraça Sanctuary in Minas Gerais, where it comes to the church steps at night to eat food left out by the priests. Sloths are best found with a guide in the Amazon around Manaus or in the Atlantic Forest, hanging still among the branches. The boa constrictor lives in forests and savannas across the country but is rarely seen by chance. In the open savannas of Roraima, in the far north, white tailed deer graze along the forest edges.