Emas National Park, undoubtedly the wildlife jewel in the cerrado’s crown, is listed as part of the Pantanal’s Biosphere Reserve and a UNESCO Human Heritage Reserve, and is situated in central Brazil in the extreme southwest of Goiás state, bordering the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. With 132,000 hectares or 1,319sq km, Emas NP (named after the abundant ostrich-like Greater Rhea) is currently the largest national park in the Brazilian Cerrado and is an important refuge for cerrado grassland species it possesses a very representative fauna, protecting 55 mammals species with at least 13 endangered species including most of the large-bodied mammals that inhabit this ecosystem within Brazil such as jaguars, pumas, maned wolves, bush dogs and hoary-foxes. Emas NP is also home of more than 370 species of birds.

Here, the entire ecosystem is driven by fire and water, the patterns of grass, scrub and trees determined by when the previous bush fire passed through and when it last rained. The seasons are marked, half a year each of wet and dry, but fires aside, there is little change in the landscape from one half of the year to the other – the grass is simply green in the wet season and brown in the dry. In the wet season, from October to March, mornings are clear, but in the afternoon clouds build up the atmosphere is hot and humid, and it rains almost daily. From April to September, this enormous region is sunny and swept by drying winds, the dry season brings blue skies with handfuls of white fluffy clouds. It is hot during the day, but the nights are cold, clear and sharp.

The Emas NP grasslands, however, are not dominated by large herbivores. Aside from a few pampas deer and tapirs, the antelope of the Serengeti and the buffalo of the American prairies are replaced here by ants and termites. They are the main grazers, and it is these tiny creatures, working together as super-organisms, that drive the entire ecosystem. At Emas NP, there are 90 known species of termites, and as far as the eye can see, there are termite mounds. The mud walls of these mounds are a hard as concrete, and inside there are interconnecting passageways and galleries with walls of softer chewed wood. At the beginning of the rainy season (October and November) as darkness falls, however, you gradually become aware that the termite mounts are covered in myriad luminous specks, like the lights of a high-rise office block. Closer examination reveals that the tiny pinpoints of light are produced by the larvae of a beetle (Pyrearinus termitilluminans) with a luminous tip to its abdomen. Each termite mound has hundreds of larvae living in its outer skin. With such a large number of ant and termites colonies on the plains, it is not surprising to find one or two larger animals that exploit them as food.