In season Maned Wolf Twilight Hunt — Emas National Park Brazil
The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) — South America's largest canid, standing 90 centimetres at the shoulder with legs so long it walks on tip-toe through tall grass, hunting rodents, fruit, and armadillos in the Brazilian Cerrado — performs its most visible activity at twilight when it hunts the open campo cerrado at Emas National Park in Goiás. Emas's combination of termite mound density (the mounds' bioluminescent Phengodidae larvae glowing green at night, making the park floor appear to be illuminated from below) and maned wolf territory creates a twilight experience of considerable strangeness: the wolf's fox-red coat in the last light, its stilt-walking gait through the long grass, and the green-glowing termite mounds below creating a cerrado landscape of genuine otherworldliness. The maned wolf's 'roar-bark' territorial call at dusk is one of the cerrado's most characteristic sounds.
About this spectacle
At dusk in Emas National Park, the maned wolf emerges from the tall cerrado grasses: a fox-red canid on improbably long black legs, stilt-walking through the campo cerrado in search of rodents, armadillos, and fruit. Standing 90 centimetres at the shoulder, it moves with an eerie, rocking gait unlike any other canid, pausing to listen, then plunging its muzzle into the grass. As the sky darkens, the park floor begins to glow — thousands of termite mounds lit from within by bioluminescent Phengodidae beetle larvae pulsing green, lending the savanna an unearthly luminescence. The wolf's fox coat catches the last orange light above a carpet of cold green fire. At full dusk, its low, resonant 'roar-bark' rolls across the open grassland — a sound visitors describe as belonging to no familiar animal. The combination of a large, charismatic predator, a singular walking style, and genuinely rare bioluminescence makes this one of the most surreal twilight wildlife experiences in South America.
When to go
Apr — Oct, peak Jun — Aug
Getting there
Nearest airport: RNP. Nearest city: Mineiros.
Booking options
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