Hotel Fazenda Santa Tereza

I’m glad I saw Randy’s comment before booking, and I want to respond to Dr. Munn since Randy didn’t. A public discussion seems fair when it helps people decide where to spend their money and whether their visit supports or harms the environment they hope to experience respectfully. Dr. Munn, I respect your ecology background and your stated commitment to protecting habitats, but I’m not persuaded by your defense of feeding wildlife. Regularly putting food out so tourists can see animals more reliably, especially predators like ocelots, is generally considered poor wildlife management. The concern isn’t how brief each feeding is. Repeated food linked to people can change animals’ movements, hunting, and wariness, even when the incentive is small. I don’t think bird feeders, farming, or providing water are good comparisons. Intentionally baiting a wild carnivore for predictable encounters with paying guests is a different practice, and calling it “harmless fun” dismisses the ethical and ecological questions. Tourism may help protect places like the Pantanal, but that doesn’t make every way of attracting visitors acceptable. Conservation shouldn’t depend on practices that could alter wildlife behavior, especially when established guidelines warn against feeding for that reason. I’m also troubled by the confident claim that there is “no negative impact” without independent evidence, monitoring, or reference to recognized conservation standards. With your academic background, I’d expect a more evidence-based response to a well-known concern in wildlife ethics. Your website’s promise that guests will “see what they came so far to see, or your money back” points, to me, toward certainty and spectacle over authenticity. Wild animals aren’t attractions that should be produced on demand. The uncertainty of seeing wildlife is part of what makes the Pantanal meaningful, and removing it risks making a wild experience feel like a managed display. I’m not comfortable supporting tourism that deliberately feeds wild animals to make sightings easier. Wildlife tourism should keep interference minimal and let animals remain fully wild. I hope you’ll reconsider the practice and move toward ecotourism that truly supports the environment and teaches visitors.