South America
Brazil is the most biodiverse country on the planet and holds around sixty per cent of the Amazon rainforest, along with five other major biomes. The Cerrado, the richest savannah in the world in plant species, covers much of the centre of the country and acts as a water tank feeding the rivers of three basins. The Pantanal, in the southwest, is the largest continuous wetland on the planet; it floods every year and in the dry season concentrates a density of wildlife comparable to Africa's, with the best chance in the world of seeing jaguars. The Atlantic Forest, along the coast, is a biodiversity hotspot reduced to fragments, and the Caatinga is the largest tropical dry forest in South America.
National animal: The rufous-bellied thrush is the national bird; the jaguar is the country's emblematic animal
The golden lion tamarin, a small primate with an orange mane found only in the Atlantic Forest, was down to some two hundred animals in the 1970s. Its recovery combined breeding in zoos around the world, reintroduction into forest fragments, land purchases and the building of tree corridors over roads so that isolated groups could meet. Today they number more than four thousand, although a yellow fever outbreak struck them again in 2018.
Spix's macaw became extinct in the wild in the year 2000 and has begun to be reintroduced into the Caatinga from birds bred in captivity in Europe. Deforestation of the Amazon and the Cerrado, driven by cattle ranching and soya, remains the country's greatest environmental problem.
The northern Pantanal between July and October for jaguars along the riverbanks. Amazonia at high water to travel the flooded forest by canoe. Fernando de Noronha year-round for spinner dolphins and turtles.
What is worth looking out for this month in Brazil?
Near ThreatenedJaguar
Panthera onca
Now is a good time: Best time to see jaguars in the Pantanal (June to October (dry season))
EndangeredAmazon River Dolphin
Inia geoffrensis
Now is a good time: Best time to see Amazon river dolphins (June to November (low-water season))
450 species found
Based on what we already know about Brazil.
