With its elongated nose, 60cm-long tongue and wiry, feather-duster tail, the giant anteater could be mistaken for a cartoonist's fever dream. But in Brazil's Pantanal, this quirky creature is one of the country's Big Five, and spotting it won't break the bank.
While African safaris often cost upwards of £3,000 per person for a week, all-inclusive lodges in the Pantanal start at £120 per person per night. Home to the highest concentration of wildlife in South America — even more than the Amazon rainforest — the region is sometimes dubbed the Brazilian Serengeti.
The Pantanal is a flat expanse of grassland, dotted with palm trees and trumpet trees, which floods between May and October to become a wetland twice the size of Iceland. Wildlife watching is centred on working farms, as 95 per cent of the land is privately owned.
At Pousada Pequi, a family-run lodge, guests can see giant anteaters, hyacinth macaws and a host of birdlife. Conservation efforts have helped hyacinth macaw numbers recover from just 500 in the wild 30 years ago to 10,000 today, thanks to artificial nest boxes.
Further northwest, Fazenda San Francisco sets aside half of its 15,000 hectares for conservation. Owner Roberta Coelho recently told visitors that a jaguar had walked down the lodge's drive the previous night. With up to 20 jaguars inhabiting the area, the Pantanal offers one of the best chances in the Americas to see the elusive big cat.
