Venture into the lush confines of the Brazilian Pantanal, host to an assortment of unusual creatures with similarly strange habits. Among these, you'll encounter the piraputanga fish that leaps out of the water to pluck fruit off low-hanging branches and the lowland tapir--the largest land mammal in South America--who can eat up to 100 lbs. of vegetation each day.
In the heart of Brazil lie the immense wetlands of the Pantanal--an area 10 times the size of the Florida Everglades. In the dry season, over 650 species of birds descend onto the shallow marshes to feast, breed, and raise their young, including the the regal jabiru, the colorful hyacinth macaw, and the noisy chacalaca.
At first glance, they look like pigs, but they're actually white-lipped peccaries from the Brazilian wetlands of the Pantanal, 10 times the size of the Everglades. Follow scientists as they track these mysterious mammals in their daily quest for food, while keeping a watchful eye for their main predator: jaguars.
A young jaguar embarks on the first solitary hunt of his adult life, deep in the Pantanal, a vast wetland 10 times larger than the Everglades. His target is a savage caiman, a relative of the crocodile, who will fight back for any opportunity to turn the tables on his inexperienced predator.
Two male ocelots, among the rarest wild cats of the Pantanal, are fighting it out over a freshly killed anaconda. In the distance, the loudest land animal in the Western Hemisphere, the howler monkey, fills the air with its primal cry. There's excitement at every turn in this protected South American wetland.
The white-whiskered spider monkey that inhabit a protected forest on the southern edge of Brazil's Amazon Rainforest is spotlighted.
Large rodents called capybaras that live on the northern edge of the Brazilian Pantanal are spotlighted.
Numerous species, including giant anteaters, maned wolves and the greater rhea, flock to the grasslands of the Pantanal during the dry season.
A biologist searches for a giant otter den at the southern edge of the Brazilian Pantanal.
An examination of the 80 mammal species, 650 bird species, 50 reptile species and more than 300 fish species that inhabit the Pantanal.