All language subtitles for Travel.Quest.With.Bill.Ball.S01E01.CONVERT.1080p.HDTV.H264-CBFM

I've been to South America
several times

and seen many incredible animals.

It is an amazing place,

but in all my wildlife adventures,

I have never seen the apex predator,
the deadly jaguar.

These are elusive cats
that are rarely ever seen

and even more rarely filmed.

I have seen signs of them,

but never even
a flickering glance of one.

This week, it's my challenge,
using all means necessary,

by vehicle, boat and on foot,

to finally see the king
of South America, the jaguar.

Since I was young,

I had an intense desire
to discover the world around me.

That hasn't changed -
just the level of adventure.

Now every journey has a purpose

and each time I venture out

to explore new destinations
around the globe,

I am following my travel quest.

I'm going to need all the help
I can get to find my first jaguar,

so I met up with famed
nature researcher and fellow American

Douglas Trent.

Doug has been studying the habits and
population dynamics of the big cat

for over a decade.

Doug is taking me
to Emas National Park,

one of the most remote in Brazil,

where wildlife numbers are huge -

perfect for a big predator
like the jaguar.

Emas National Park is located

about 250 miles from the city
of Campo Grande.

Much drier than most of Brazil,

it is famous for its concentration
of termite mounds.

There's no convenient public
transportation to the national park,

so we rent a truck and a van.

Douglas is driving one
and me the other.

This is my first time
driving in South America.

I've driven in Africa,
I've driven in Australia,

I've driven in Asia,
never in South America.

I always thought the people there
were too crazy on the road to try.

Well, here I go. (LAUGHS)

It takes us just over six hours
to reach our home base

for the next three days.

Just outside the park is a small town

of about 10,000 people.

It has a typical Brazilian
countryside charm.

One wonderful surprise
is the Hotel Vitor,

located on the town's main drag.

It has a new clean look
and is a great place to stay

while we explore the park.

A walk around the town is a nice way
to experience the hospitality

that rural Brazil is famous for.

Where else would you find giant birds
and pigs extolling the virtues

of picking up trash?

It is the area's
pervasive eco-philosophy

that translates into the care and
preservation of Emas National Park.

The park is pristine, with no hotels
or settlements within its borders.

Its remote location
also translates into few tourists.

In fact, in our two days in the park,

we saw less than a dozen people.

Douglas Trent's reputation
as a wildlife researcher

and community organiser

has opened the park to us.

Trent has been studying jaguars,
river otters

and other megafauna in Brazil,

with the aim
of preserving wild spaces.

He works with local communities
and property owners

to open their land to wildlife

in exchange for cashing in
on the growing eco-tourism market.

I knew an American here.
His name is Douglas Trent.

And this guy told my father, "Change
your cattle for eco-tourism."

And this American told us, "I am
going to send an English teacher

"for you and your family
to learn English."

Now, everybody in Pantanero

can see us working with eco-tourism,
independent,

and the best business for us
is eco-tourism.

Emas National Park
is over 500 square miles,

or roughly the size of Hong Kong,

and, like Hong Kong,
it is, unfortunately, an island -

not in the traditional
surrounded by water sense,

but large cultivated fields
encircle the national park,

making movement of animals in and out
of Emas extremely difficult.

With a huge fire in 2010
and another smaller one in 2015,

the biodiversity could fall

as animals cannot migrate in
to repopulate.

Despite its isolation,

Emas was declared a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 2001.

Every wildlife drive is a surprise,

with species encounters
that you don't expect.

Emas was no exception.

Our day in the park could be called
the fox and the owl day.

Sounds more like a title
of a nursery rhyme than a safari.

Fox and owl day started out fast

with the siting of a large
dog-like animal in the road,

a crab-eating fox.

In the rainy season,

these normally nocturnal canines
do eat crabs,

but they are a lot less fussy
the rest of the year,

eating small rodents and reptiles

and often supplementing
their diet with fruits.

With such an exciting start,

Doug is inspired to take us
to a bridge

where, in the past,
he's seen a giant Amazon anaconda.

This is another animal of Brazil
that I have never seen in the wild.

So, I'm all in for the stop.

Arriving at the bridge,

Doug suggests we walk
on a narrow path in the dense brush.

There it was, at least part of it.

Its massive tail was protruding out
from under the elevated pathway.

The dangerous end is the head,

and the million-dollar question is...
where is it?

I met up with Douglas Trent,

a wildlife researcher
based in Brazil,

to help me fulfil a childhood dream
of seeing a wild jaguar.

Our first stop was the remote
Emas National Park,

where he took me down
a dangerous-looking path.

This is a giant Amazon anaconda,
the largest snake in the world.

This individual is probably
16, 17 feet long.

Um, it's resting here,
it's in the sun,

but we can't see the head.

So we're not sure where it's at.

The girth of this
is like the size of my leg.

It's just a remarkable snake

and it can eat something
as large as a deer.

The more I looked at the tail,
as crazy as it sounds,

the more I had to see
the head of this beast.

Following the flow
of its massive body,

I figured it had to be
under the narrow walkway.

If I got too near the head,
it could grab my face.

Carefully...

There it was.

The head was huge!

Lucky for me, she was fast asleep.

Don't be fooled by the open eyes.

Snakes have no eyelids,

so the eyes always look like that.

Wow. (LAUGHS) Yeah. (LAUGHS)

That's a biggie under there.

It was back on the road,
looking for the elusive jaguar,

when remembering my own safari rules,

I kept an eye out for all wildlife,

and, in Emas, that includes birds.

Emas is a haven for birders,
with over 220 species.

They are quite visible

and many, like the macaws, are a draw
even for megafauna fans.

The park's name, 'Emas',
is Portuguese for 'rhea'.

These giant birds, relatives of
the ostrich, are everywhere.

Male rheas
are, hands down, the winners

of the father of the year award.

In rhea world, it is the dad
that raises the chicks,

not the moms.

In fact, the females will leave
the young with the father

and start mating with another male.

But probably for me,

the most charismatic and photogenic
bird of Emas is the burrowing owl.

If you visit
during Brazil's springtime,

you'll see some of the most adorable
babies in the world.

These little guys
are no more than eight inches tall

and actually live underground.

It is a survival tactic that works.

In prime owl habitat,

I counted a nesting pair
every quarter of a mile.

But they have an advantage here -
the termite mounds -

both as lookouts for danger and food

and the ease of making a borough.

These insect- and small-rodent-eating
birds are, because of the mounds,

one of the most prolific in the park.

The burrowing owls' use
of the termite mounds

is just one way the park's top
feature influences the ecology.

There are more termite mounds here
than anywhere else in the world,

giving all kinds of animals,
like snakes, lizards

and, of course, the burrowing owl,

a home.

Termite mounds,
as impressive as they are here

in both shape and sheer numbers,

are expected.

It is the unexpected
that really gets me excited.

As we drive down the road, one of
those moments suddenly popped up -

a small dog-like pup
was lying in front of the car.

Once it saw us, it took off and ran
first away and then back towards us

before it darts into the bush.

At first glance, I thought it
could have been an uncommon canine

called the hoary fox.

Sure enough, that's what it was.

This cute carnivore
is rarely ever captured on camera.

You can't have predators
without prey,

and here the biggest prey species
is the deer.

When we entered the park,
the rangers told me

that they were raising an orphan fawn
at the visitor centre.

Since we were near, I had to stop
and meet the little guy.

I love baby animals.

The rangers let me feed him,

which turned out to be
a test of strength.

A challenge I did not win.

Emas National Park in Brazil
gave us some incredible sightings,

including rare canines,
the cutest owls on earth,

and, of course, the giant anaconda,

whose head I just had to see.

But the visit was bittersweet
without spotting a jaguar.

Doug assured me, though,
that the best opportunity would be

in the southern Pantanal,
where he conducts his research.

So, I jumped at the chance

when he invited me to join him
on one of his projects.

At 75,000 square miles,

the Pantanal is the largest wetland
in the world.

To get to his research area,
we had to fly to Cuiaba,

drive four hours into the Pantanal,

and then, where the road ends,

take a boat another three hours
into the wilderness.

Given its isolation,

I was curious what it was
about this area that drew Doug in.

We see here, and what my research
is also showing,

is that you'll have multiple jaguars
using the same territory

because there's just so much food.

Wetlands produce more biomass
than any other type of biome,

any other type of life zone.

So, they find much more food here.

They're not as dependent

on each having
their own individual territory.

So, you end up with greater numbers
of jaguars here

than you do anywhere else.

Over the next three hours,

unfolding before us

was some of the most gorgeous scenery
that I had ever travelled in.

Incredible birds,

bright green forests

and reflective riverscapes

made for a picturesque,
even dreamlike, journey to the camp.

It seemed like the most
peaceful place on earth.

But we were in jaguar country

and Doug would relate
a cautionary tale to me.

And I don't want to hear the details,

but what kind of numbers
are we talking?

Four people so far.
Uh, one death and three attacks.

Wow.

And these are attacks on people
for food?

Uh, it's hard to say
why the jaguar attacked.

You know, we need to reach
into the mind of the cat.

Um, but in every situation,
uh, the opportunity was there.

How did you get hooked on jaguars

versus all the other animals,
and the other cats, even?

This mountain range
that we've driven through today

goes up north and turns east
and is north of Cuiaba.

Going through that forest,
I was able...

At that time, in 1980,
there was very little deforestation.

It was an unheard of thing.

Uh, I was in the front of the bus.

The bus would go up the hill
and when it got to the top,

I would be able to see the canopy,
a most beautiful thing,

the canopy of the rainforest.

And then I dropped...
dropped down into it.

After about
the third or fourth time,

when I got to the top of the hill,

I was running into deforestation

and a line of fire
in the forest up above.

I was shocked.

The bus driver,
I think, had seen it before.

We went straight through the fire,
with flames above us.

A black jaguar, my first jaguar,
jumped into the road,

ran about 30 metres
and into the right side.

It was no doubt hunting.

I was blown away.

I realised that I had witnessed

the beginning
of some major conservation issue,

and seeing my first jaguar.

I was hooked.

We prepared for what would be
a long, long day,

covering over 300 miles of waterways

and battling humidity and heat
in excess of 105 degrees.

The trip along the Paraguay River
was, simply put, beautiful.

If I had come for the ride alone,
I wouldn't have been disappointed.

We saw an abundance of wildlife
along the shore -

capybara, jabiru storks,
and caiman, to name a few.

From the hotel where we're staying
at to the other side of the reserve,

we counted 122 capybara.

In a week, we had 18 different cats.
OK.

Those cats quickly decimated those,
uh...

Over two years,
they basically took care of

the vast majority of those capybara.

And by 2011, 2012,
there were almost no capybara.

And the number of jaguar
had just disappeared.

Our last trip through here,
we registered 54 capybara.

Their population is now increasing

and, thus, we're starting to see
a jaguar increase as well.

According to Doug, the capybara
numbers are on the rise,

which means an increase in the number
of jaguars in the area.

This gives me hope of finding one.

I wanted to learn more about
some of the other methods Doug uses

to keep track of the big cats
and other fauna of the region.

While you can see a lot
from the boat, you need to go inland

to get a better picture of
what happens in the dense forest.

Now you've got a picture of me, too.
(LAUGHS)

How many of these camera traps
do you have set up?

Just this one working right now.
OK.

You've seen this termite dust here?

Wow.

(BLOWS)

They're starting to build on it.

The termites started to build on it.

How often do you come
and check these traps?

We do our research
for 10 days every month.

And usually,
at the end of the 10 days,

we come and we set it up somewhere
where we think, at the time,

we'll have the best chance of
getting in numerous creatures.

And then, at the end
of the next 10 days, pick it up,

go to the boat, charge up
the battery, set it out again.

The batteries we use
will last for easily a month.

OK. So we'd be able to check and see
if we got any jaguars on it now?

Absolutely.
Alright. Great.

Hope for the best.
Yeah.

(BOTH CHATTER INDISTINCTLY)

Camera traps are exciting tools

because they give you a voyeuristic
view of nature over a period of time.

And because
they're motion activated,

if anything wanders into
the clearing, we'll see it here.

I'm cautiously optimistic,

but you never know
what you're going to get.

Well, no jaguars, but plenty
of other interesting critters.

Yeah, there he is. There he is.
There he is. Here he comes.

There he is. Aww!

(BOTH LAUGH)

After a short break,
we're back on the boat,

searching for more wildlife.

Doug made it clear just how remote
this part of the world is.

We're about 25 miles
from the Bolivian border.

Uh, this continues looking much
the same all the way into Bolivia.

If we didn't have
our captain, Vagno, here,

who knows this
like the palm of his hand,

we could get lost
and spend the rest of our life here.

Almost immediately, we had
our first wildlife encounter...

(MAKES WEIRD OTTER-LIKE NOISE)

..giant river otters.

(PEOPLE ON BOAT
CONTINUE MAKING OTTER-LIKE NOISE)

(RIVER OTTERS CHITTER AND SCREECH)

What the heck
were you doing back there?

Well, when Vagno and I
find river otters,

uh, the giant otters,

uh, we make the noise.

We imitate the noise they have.
That makes them territorial.

They lift up their heads and I...
with my GPS here and my camera,

I get a shot of them
and I can get their throats,

so I can identify the individuals
and mark them with a GPS.

So, their throats...every throat
is different?

Every throat is different.

With that, I've been able
to document

some 38 different giant otters
in the region,

and I'm doing a study
of the individual families.

But I gotta get their throats
to know what individual it is.

With time running out
to film a jaguar,

we decided to try night-spotting
after dinner.

Night safaris
are one of my favourite,

since you get a small window
into the lives of nocturnal animals

that are otherwise
hidden by the darkness.

There are very few lodges
in this remote area of the Pantanal.

Besides our hotel,
a basic fishing lodge,

there are just a couple
of floating hotels.

One was just ahead.

As we pulled near it,

our spotlight caught a glimpse
of eye shine.

We zero in on it.

A jaguar!

Dave, our videographer,
is one of a handful

that has captured footage of all five
of the big cats in the wild -

the tiger, lion, cheetah, leopard,

and now jaguar.

The next morning, Doug shows me
how he identifies each jaguar.

With the GPS setting on his camera,

he can track the location
of the big cats.

Doug has a database
of face shots of jaguars.

The markings are unique,
like people's fingerprints,

allowing him
to identify individual animals.

So, we've got number 43, a new cat.

You don't have any others
to match it against. Wow.

No others right now.

You had said that
there were a lot of cats
moving in and out of the territory.

Yeah, it's a very
different phenomenon

from what research has shown
in other areas.

Amazonia, with 70 square kilometres
per cat,

the females will overlap,
of course, you know,

but each cat needs to have
that 70 kilometres.

Here, it really seems like
in our area of research, anyway,

the cats kind of come and go.

There's enough food

and there doesn't seem to be
any territorial fighting

or any qualms like that.

You said this was
a pretty young cat, too. So...

Three to four years.
Yeah, so maybe...

The beauty of these cats
often masks a more violent side

that eco-tourists never really see.

Doug had mentioned
the human impact earlier.

One of these survivors
lives and works

just a few minutes from the floating
lodge where we saw our jaguar.

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
(DOG BARKS)

We're gonna do the outfit,
if he doesn't mind putting that on.

See what I mean?
Yeah.

(DOGS BARK)

(LAUGHTER)

The dogs think they're ready
to go somewhere.

Yeah.

I have never met

a person who has been attacked
by a jaguar and survived.

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

He hit the head of the cat
and the cat took his arm.

Put his teeth in here.

Oh!

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

He fell back and his dog came
and bit the stomach of the jaguar...

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

..and he let go of Joao
and went after the dog.

How long did it take to recover?

A year and eight months.

Oh, my gosh!

Almost two years.

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
Yeah.

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Three months now he's been working.

(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

And you weren't scared
to go back out?

Vacation's over.

(BOTH SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE)

A little bit, but, you know,
what are you gonna do?

You've got to work.
I guess.

So, having jaguars around
is OK for you?

(SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

(JOAO SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)

Yeah, but it is dangerous,
without a doubt.

Well, thank you.
Thank you very much.

You are a very brave man.

Very brave man.

They seem that they have no fear
of being in the open at all.

No, not at all.

They're kings of the jungle,
they're top of the food chain.

When you're an apex predator,
I guess you can do what you want.

That's right.

Doug suggested we try
one last late-afternoon run

to try to get more jaguar footage.

What we had seen last night
was exciting, but quite short.

With the temperature
still over 100 degrees,

I didn't hold out much hope,

but Doug offered
some words of encouragement.

Of the 43 cats
he's documented in the area,

the vast majority
have been seen in the daylight.

I've always thought
jaguars were nocturnal,

but Doug said that is mostly in areas
where they're hunted.

And that is certainly
not the case here.

And sure enough...

Unbelievable.

On our last day,
late in the afternoon,

we finally hit paydirt.

And not just one cat,
but a mom and her cubs.

Jaguars are single parents and this
one seems to be doing quite well

with a healthy litter.

These two cubs will stay with mom

for up to at least
their second birthday.

She'll teach them
how to hunt and avoid danger

so they can successfully
go out on their own

and ultimately either father
or raise their own litter,

completing the circle of life.

But at this age, all they have to do

is stay close to mom,

which they seem to be pretty good at.

Time for a celebration.

Seeing a jaguar in the wild is rare,

but multiple sightings in two days

is truly amazing.

Especially after they had
disappeared from this region.

This provides hope for the future

as their numbers are certainly
moving in the right direction.

But this journey through
the Brazilian Pantanal

has exposed the delicate balance
that is ever evolving in nature.

Ecologists like Doug Trent document
what few people have ever seen

and bear witness to
the effects people have

on this fragile ecosystem.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2023