Pantanal, Brazil

Sleek and shy female jaguar "Ti", aka "Ryan" swimming into the Cuiaba river (Brazilian Pantanal) to hunt. Little did she know that a huge male, Dumé, was dozing on a sandbank downstream. She saw him before he saw her, and she quickly crawled on land disappeared in the bushes.

Medrosa, aka "Amber" (because of the distinctive color of her eyes) is jumping to greet her ravenous cubs after being gone all day hunting, June 2022. She is the hardworking supermom to two almost grown, frisky cubs Rio and Marcela. The family shares the Black Channel of the Cuiaba river in the Brazilian Pantanal with her own mother, Patricia.

Drama in the Corixo Negro ("Black Channel") of the Cuiaba river, July 2022 iin the Brazilian Pantanal. The struggle and kill took place mostly under water. The combatants would surface only occasionally to the two dozen boats directed at them, with everyone jockeying for position and tempers fraying (that's the aspect of jaguar spotting they don't tell you about!). The jaguar had gone for the throat instead of the more usual brain case, and had to struggle hard to kill the caiman. When it finally did, it dragged the corpse into the reeds and we didn't see it again that day.