Welcome to ThePantanalSafari!

Welcome to "thepantanalsafari.blogspot.com" - the class blog for Wetlands Ecology and Conservation in The Pantanal – a Case Study.  The purpose of the blog is to have the students document their explorations of the class material.  Feel free to include useful resources, personal observations, references to Pantanal related organisms, surprising or important facts, etc. 

I offer a huge shout-out to those of you who have already add posts.  I intended to post sooner, but I was distracted preparing lectures on "Viral Infections of the Brain" for my med school class.

For other examples of student posts from my last overseas seminar (to Madagascar), check out:

http://madasafari.blogspot.com

As a starting point, I offer this:

While I tell people that I am planning to take a group of students to the Pantanal, I usually get a blank stare or maybe a response like “the what?”  Given the importance of water, as exemplified for example in the adage, “Water is life”, it is surprising to me that so few people have heard of the Pantanal.  The Pantanal has been described as largest wetlands in the world.  It is somewhat comparable to having someone say they have never heard of the Amazon – the largest rainforest in the world, or Greenland – the largest island, or the Safari – the largest desert.  

Many other superlatives could be used to describe the Pantanal.  Although there is greater biological diversity and density in the Amazon, the Pantanal is arguably the best place for wildlife photography in South America.  This means that most people have seen substantial footage of the Pantanal if they watch the Discovery Channel or other nature programs.  It also means that the people I encounter who have heard of the Pantanal are often photographers.  The obscurity of the Pantanal may also be a good thing both in terms of protecting the Pantanal and in terms of giving great cache to the Pantanal as a travel destination – at least among those who value going to little traveled locations of extreme beauty. 

As a token of my esteem for the Pantanal, here is a link to pictures from my 2011 trip there: http://www.stanford.edu/~siegelr/brazil/pantanal2011.html

In preparing for the first prefield class last Thursday, I was delighted to find a quote that linked my interests in The Pantanal and infectious disease. “There is a phenomenon known as the ‘Pantanal fever’ or ‘Pantanal virus.’  It is an incurable love of the Pantanal, and it infects all those who live within it or who visit the region.  Fortunately, there is no known cure for this virus.” Frederick A Swarts, 2000.