Following its success in the Pantanal, Onçafari expanded its footprint to an increasingly threatened but critically important biome, the Cerrado, a mosaic of grasslands and forests considered the outback of Brazil.
Over 10,000 species—around 5 percent of the world’s animals and plants—inhabit the 772,000-square-mile Cerrado. Not only is it Earth’s most biodiverse savanna, it’s also critical to the future of our planet. The Cerrado stores roughly 35 tons of carbon per acre in its soil and root system, according to the WWF. Yet industrial agriculture, largely for soybeans, has destroyed more than 60 percent of the Cerrado wilderness.
Onçafari’s work here focuses on habituating and studying the nearly threatened maned wolf, a tall canid nicknamed a “fox on stilts” that remains largely under-researched, according to Chiara Bortolotto, an Onçafari guide and biologist from the Cerrado-based city of Brasília. Bortolotto and her team are in a race against time as agriculture increasingly wipes the maned wolf’s already shrinking habitat.
The NGO operates out of Fazenda Trijunção—a ranch that, like Caiman, centers on conservation and sustainability. It’s a roughly 82,000-acre amalgam of fruit tree groves, sustainable farmlands, and preserved savanna neighboring Grande Sertão Veredas National Park.
Tucked away in the reserve is Pousada Trijunção, a boutique seven-room lodge with spacious suites, authentic Brazilian fare (don’t miss another cheese pastry favorite, the waffle de pão de queijo), and plenty of outdoor lounge space to watch the macaws, pint-sized marmosets, and guinea pigs pass to and fro. Active travelers enjoy a bevy of experiences at Pousada Trijunção, including not only safaris, but fat-bike trips, night boat rides to see caimans and owls, wild swimming, paddling, and birding hikes with local ornithologists.
A communal area at Pousada Trijunção.Photo: Courtesy of Pousada Trijunção