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<\/p>\nThis article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK).<\/p>\n
I\u2019m face to face with a black jaguar. With the unhurried, nonchalant gait of a predator at the top of its food chain, the feline ambles closer to our quad bike, which we parked at a distance along a dirt path. It\u2019s about to overtake us, then halts so close we could reach it in three strides, turns as if in slow motion and meets our stares. Eyes this yellow can be one of two things: a warning; or a lure, tempting as a honeytrap, damning as light to a moth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never tire of this,\u201d whispers Eduardo \u2018Edu\u2019 Fragoso from the driver\u2019s seat, wearing wraparound glasses to shield himself from the sun of the Cerrado, a savannah stretching across much of central Brazil. He\u2019s a coordinator at On\u00e7afari, a nonprofit pioneer of safari drives in the country, which operates here out of Pousada Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o, a\u00a0lodge set in over 125sq miles of protected land. Edu and his team have been observing the local big cat population for two years, with the aim of offering jaguar-spotting tours by 2027, and they\u2019ve taken me on a research trip. \u201cIt\u2019s rare,\u201d he says as the animal walks on, following the thick vegetation lining the road, \u201cseeing it so close and clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cerrado has the world\u2019s highest incidence of melanistic jaguars.<\/p>\n
Photography by Edu Fragoso<\/p>\n
The best place to find jaguars in the wild is widely believed to be the Pantanal, a wetland far to the west, but there are benefits to coming here instead. On average, around 10% of the species is melanistic (black-coated); in\u00a0the Cerrado, the incidence is over 40%, the highest in any region. \u201cWe\u00a0don\u2019t know why,\u201d says Edu. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to answer the question.\u201dProceeds from On\u00e7afari\u2019s safari drives support its research, including conservation projects like this one. \u201cWe know the power of a black jaguar \u2014 the icon, the myth,\u201d continues Edu. \u201cWe\u2019re using it to save them.\u201d<\/p>\n
South America\u2019s second-largest biome, the Cerrado covers over 775,000sq miles, which is almost four times the size of France. Since the 1970s, it\u2019s been turned into an agricultural behemoth, with encroaching monoculture plantations and mammoth irrigation systems that leech the soil dry. More than half of both its primary vegetation and jaguar population have been lost. \u201cIt\u2019s the most devastated part of the country,\u201d says Edu.<\/p>\n
His team\u2019s main goal is habitat connectivity in the Mosaico Sert\u00e3o Veredas-Perua\u00e7u, a group of 38 protected areas \u2014 including Pousada Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o and the adjacent Grande Sert\u00e3o Veredas National Park \u2014 across some 11,500sq miles. \u201cWe work with the environmental agency to prove the importance of wildlife corridors,\u201d says Edu. Take the animal in front of us: its home range is almost 1,900sq miles, the largest recorded for the species, and over 70% of that lies outside protected land. \u201cHe can\u2019t find what he needs. And if it\u2019s true for one, it\u2019s true for many.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Rooms at Pousada Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o blend the surrounding landscapes and local culture into a stylish stay.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Carmen Campos<\/p>\n
The slanted, late-afternoon light outlines the silhouette of the jaguar, now distant again. Its jaw, which gives the most powerful bite of any big cat; the curve of the leg, which allows it to sprint as fast as 50mph and jump as high as 10\u00a0feet. But here, too, is an animal panting in the heat, dragging its paws to shade \u2014 a king among creatures subject to the rule of nature, fast-changing around it. \u201cI\u2019ll leave him now,\u201d says Edu, starting the quad bike. \u201cHe\u2019s been kind to us. Let\u2019s be kind to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upside-down forest<\/p>\n
The word cerrado is Portuguese for \u2018closed\u2019, a name that captures what this land was once perceived to be: remote, unwelcoming, inhospitable. Even today, reaching its heart involves a five-hour drive from the capital, Bras\u00edlia. Much of the ground is covered in tall grass, leather-tough shrubland and stunted trees. During the dry season, it can be more arid than the Sahara. But because of its location on the flat Brazilian Plateau, it\u2019s also one of the most wide-open places you\u2019re likely to come across. \u201cThese horizons are like nowhere in Brazil,\u201d says Vin\u00edcius \u2018Vini\u2019 Vianna, an ornithologist at Pousada Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o, holding a pair of binoculars like a natural extension of his hands. \u201cThe sunsets are like Africa\u2019s.<\/p>\n
At night, the stars sweep 180 degrees in a full arc above.\u201d We\u2019re on a watchtower in the courtyard of the lodge for a sunrise birdwatching tour, taking in a panorama so expansive it spills out of the peripherals. \u201cThe Cerrado\u2019s known as an \u2018upside-down forest\u2019,\u201d Vini says, looking at the seemingly infinite expanse of low canopy. \u201cThe trees focus their energy downward to seek water. The roots can dig much, much deeper than the height of the branches.\u201d Much of the Cerrado is not as first seems, and guests here learn about it on walking, kayaking and driving tours. Pretty calliandra flowers are believed to curse whoever picks them. Biting leaf-cutter ants are a much-loved food, and taste like lemongrass. A melancholic whistle in the night might be a potoo bird, a low buzzing a rattlesnake dove. For every secret uncovered, there\u2019s a surprise coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait \u2014 that\u2019s a black jacobin hummingbird, a new species for the lodge,\u201d says Vini, rushing for his camera to document the sighting. \u201cWow-ow-ow! You don\u2019t know how happy I am right now.\u201d When he started working here four years ago in 2021, the lodge had about 220 documented bird species; as of this morning, 309. The Cerrado has around 870 in total, as well as over 50,000 species of insects, mammals like giant anteaters and armadillos, and around 13,000 species of plants, 40% of which don\u2019t exist anywhere else. It\u2019s the most biodiverse savannah on\u00a0Earth, home to around 5% of all species.<\/p>\n
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Maned wolves are called \u2018foxes on stilts\u2019 for their long, slender legs.<\/p>\n
Photography by Edu Fragoso<\/p>\n
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Bruna Nunes searches for maned wolves using VHF frequencies.<\/p>\n
Photograph by Angela Locatelli<\/p>\n
The best-known residents, aside from the jaguars, are maned wolves \u2014 large canines with sunburnt-orange fur, oversized ears and slender limbs that can reach three feet to the shoulders. \u201cWe call them \u2018foxes on stilts\u2019,\u201d says Bruna Nunes, a researcher at On\u00e7afari, that evening. She\u2019s leaning halfway out of an open-sided 4WD to guide me on another safari drive, her own mane of curls wind-whipped. In fact, the animals are neither wolves nor foxes, not coyotes nor jackals; they\u2019re alone in their genus, and have adapted to life in the Cerrado over three million years. \u201cIf\u00a0humans tried to walk around here, they\u2019d fight with the vegetation,\u201d Bruna says, mimicking a person taking knee-high, awkward steps. \u201cThe wolf fits naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from habitat loss, they suffer from the proximity to farmland, getting scabies from domestic dogs and being hit by cars. On\u00e7afari\u2019s been researching and raising awareness of threats to the species since 2016, and wolf-spotting is the company\u2019s flagship experience in the Cerrado. Some of the animals have been fitted with tracking collars to facilitate studies and sightings, but finding them is still detective work, involving GPS data, VHF frequencies and drone images.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see what we find,\u201d says Bruna, angling a beeping antenna to intercept signals. \u201cThe Cerrado\u2019s always a surprise.\u201d We spot miniature crab-eating foxes and ostrich-like rheas. We pass a vereda, a word that means \u2018path\u2019 and is used here to describe belts of palm trees along rivers. Periodically, we stop when the signal gets stronger, scour the surrounds with a drone, think we\u2019re nearing a wolf only for it to trot off and away again. \u201cOne thing we learned working with them is patience,\u201d says Bruna after hours on\u00a0the road, playing the ultimate game of hide and seek. \u201cBut also to have hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so it appears: on the path ahead, an animal like nothing I\u2019ve seen, lithe and nimble, seeming to glide on dirt as if on air. \u201cIt walks like giraffes, moving the limbs on one side of the body at the same time,\u201d says Bruna. \u201cIt\u00a0makes it look like a model on a runway.\u201d I look closely, wondering how an environment that was named for its perceived roughness could have helped create a creature of such grace. But all too soon, the wolf steps off the path and melts back into the wilderness, the thickets seeming to open and close for it. Looks like some of the Cerrado\u2019s secrets are meant to stay that way.<\/p>\n
How to do itNatural World Safaris<\/a> can arrange a nine-day, all-inclusive Brazil trip, including three nights at Pousada Trijun\u00e7\u00e3o<\/a>, from \u00a39,690 per person based on two sharing, including all travel and domestic transfers. Published in the October 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).<\/p>\n