Walk on the Wild Side
Peter Gasson discovers that Rio de Janeiro is not only a vibrant city in a spectacular setting; it is also a good place to watch wildlife.
Rio has attractions that go far beyond its famous landmarks and the carnival, and these include some engaging and entertaining wildlife. Tufted-eared Marmosets, Guianan Squirrels, and Agoutis are the line-up in the city, whilst Egrets, Cormorants and Brown Boobies grace the beaches. Magnificent Frigatebirds and Black Vultures cruise over the sea and the city.
There is just enough time in a two-day visit to take a tour of the city and look for these birds and animals in the Botanical Gardens, Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açucar), Tijuca Forest, around the Statue of Christ and in a park called Campo de Santana. With longer to spare, and a car, the Itatiaia National Park, halfway between Rio and São Paulo is a must.
The Botanical Gardens is a quiet haven in an otherwise bustling city and provides a wonderful introduction to the richness of the South American flora. Most of the plants are labelled with their botanical names and country of origin. You can stroll around in an hour, but I would recommend much more. There is a small café and a book shop. On my visits I’ve been too engrossed to visit the latter, which sells guides to the garden, books on Rio’s birds etc. If it’s raining (which it often has on my visits in August), there is a small museum of economic botany. With long enough in the gardens, you should see marmosets feeding in the trees, scrounging food, and even running along telegraph wires! These marmosets are more tolerant of the close proximity of man than their close relatives, the endangered golden lion tamarins which live in the nearby rainforests along the Atlantic coast of Brazil.
If you miss the marmosets here, try the peak of the Sugarloaf Mountain. Guianan Squirrels vie with the marmosets for titbits. They are much smaller than the Grey Squirrels in Britain and North America, and somewhat less bold. The birds are approachable and often spectacular. There are hummingbirds (Violet-capped Woodnymph and Hermits), several tanagers, including the very spectacular Red-necked Tanager, Rufous-bellied Thrushes, and if you are very lucky, even Channel-billed Toucans.
A funicular railway passes through luxuriant rainforest en route to the Statue of Christ on Corcovado, a mountain 709 metres above the city. The statue is an awesome 30 metres high and weighs a staggering 1000 tonnes. The view when you stand under it and look across the city to the beaches and distant hills is one of the most spectacular anywhere in the world. Even on an overcast day, you should be lucky with the occasional ray of sunshine falling on the distant Sugarloaf Mountain. It is difficult to believe that the Tijuca forest through which you pass on the way to the top is actually planted.
Campo de Santana is a park near the city centre, just south of Avenue Presidente Vargas, which features on even the least detailed maps of the city. The park is about 500 metres across, and is a marvellous place to watch very tame agoutis. In many parts of Brazil all you will see of an agouti is a fleeting glimpse as one crosses the road or skulks at the forest edge. A lack of knowledge of Portuguese proved very helpful here. I misunderstood the signs scattered around the park saying ‘Não pise no gramma’, and standing on the grass to get better photos of the agoutis seemed much less of a misdemeanour.
These rodents are able to chisel open even the hardest seeds with their teeth. They bury seeds for another time, and so help in their dispersal. The park is also quite good for birds, and we had close views of a Black-crowned Night Heron here. If you have longer than a couple of days to spare, visit Parque Nacional de Itatiaia.
My only visit was in March, from São Paulo. It took us six hours by car to get there along the main São Paulo to Rio highway (BR116), but should be quicker from Rio. We missed the main visitor area, and drove uphill along a road and then a rough track almost as far as our saloon car would take us, where we camped by a stream only a few hundred metres from a small hotel and bar. The latter has showers and loos, but don’t bother getting there too early in the morning, because it was locked up to outsiders first thing. We passed through montane forest with Passion Flowers (Passiflora sp.) and Fuchsias, and an Araucaria grove, before reaching montane scenery with rocky outcrops and short vegetation scattered with several interesting plants including clubmosses (Lycopodium sp.), Everlasting (Paepalanthus polyanthus), and a blue flowered bladderwort (Utricularia sp.).
Fuchsias and Araucarias are particularly interesting, in that they are also found in New Zealand and Australia respectively. They are examples of plants with widely disjunct distributions, which existed before the great Southern continent Gondwanaland began breaking apart in the Cretaceous period (between 140-65 million years before present).
There are also several endemic birds, including the inconspicuous Itatiaia Spinetail and Velvety Black Tyrant, and more widespread species like Great Pampa Finches, Red-rumped Warbling Finches, various hummingbirds, and in the forests the Diademed Tanager.
The scenery high in Itatiaia is beautiful and spectacular, but beware of clouds in the valleys, which can rapidly engulf you in cold mist. Either stick to the roads and paths, or make sure you are a good navigator, with adequate footwear, clothing and food.
Dr Peter Gasson is a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Much of his spare time is spent photographing wildlife.