From July 11-14, 2009, my wife Trudy and I visited the Jaguar Research Center ('JRC') in the Brazilian Pantanal.
Based on the facial spot pattern the JRC-staff has identified approximately 25 different Jaguars in the area.
Because the Jaguars are not hunted, they are active during day and night.
During the day they often rest on the river banks in the area.
By checking the river banks by boat we found Jaguars every day of our stay.
According to the JRC-staff the average for the month of July is approximately one Jaguar sighting per 10-12 hours on the boat.
We were very lucky, our average was one Jaguar sighting per 4-5 hours.

Because of the height of the river banks, the Jaguars could be photographed from the boat from a nearby and relative low position.
Light conditions were often poor, which forced me to use ISO 1600-3200 regularly, which caused noise that could not be eliminated completely.

On the afternoon of July 11 we found an adult male (later identified by the staff as an individual by the name of Wilson) resting along the Rio Cuiabà.

On the afternoon of July 12 we found a sofar unknown, approximately two year old Jaguar, along a side river of the Rio Cuiabà.
The unknown young Jaguar will be named Marcos or Alexandra depending on the gender, which was undetermined at that time.
At the end of the afternoon a second (unidentified-mother or sibling) Jaguar showed up and disappeared with the first one.
(In August 2010 we have been informed that the so far unknown Jaguar turned out to be a female and has been named Alexandra, after our granddaughter).

On the morning of July 13 we found Wilson again a few kilometers downstream along the Rio Cuiabà.

Before leaving the area on July 14, we checked the area where we had found the two Jaguars.
Much to our surprise we found Wilson here, who had crossed the Rio Cuiabà and one of its side rivers.