Patagonia Wildlife 2017

Out again at 6:30am and again towards the land owned by the estancia, along the way we saw a fox & skunk, but it was still dark so not good for photos.

This time we were heading to a lake area along a section of the road closed to traffic due to maintenance work. The road runs to estancia land so we were allowed through the closure. I recognised the area from photos I had seen on Facebook and knew this was the area the mother and 2 cubs were living in. The cubs would be approximately 6/7 months old, so although not at their cutest, they would still be substantially smaller than their mother.

Jorge was out looking for them when we arrived. There were no guanaco in the area around the puma’s den site so no warning calls to listen out for. We drove up and down and took a walk to stretch our legs. Had our breakfast, drove some more and as we were doing our last drive along the road before returning to the hotel (at 10:15am) the mother and cubs were spotted attempting to cross the road.

They went further away from the road and stopped in some bushes. Jorge advised us that the mother was probably planning to take them back to their denning site and that she wouldn’t proceed if the vehicle was left where it was. We exited the vehicle and walked up the side of a steep hill while Cesar moved the vehicles (ours and Jorge’s).

We were far enough away to not cause the mother concern, so after waiting about 30 minutes she started to walk towards the road again and then across it out of our sight. The lighting was really harsh and it was difficult to get decent photos given the distance, lighting and angle we were shooting at.

Once she was out of sight we slowly walked along the steep bank, ensuring we didn’t disturb her route across the road. Jorge knew where she was heading so we walked at a quick pace across to a cliff edge as she and the cubs entered the valley below. We sat on the top of the cliff bank, ensuring we got down as low as we could and watched them. The mother got the scent of something she didn’t like and headed off to investigate while the cubs stayed behind to climb around on the rocks.

Around 11:15am we walked back to the vehicle and got back to the hotel at 12:30pm for our packed lunch.

It was another warm and sunny afternoon and after another unsuccessful attempt to see the armadillo & deer at the campsite we headed back towards where we had seen the mother & cubs. The warm vehicle made all except Cesar, Sebastian and I fall asleep!

Back to where we had left the cubs in the morning and the mother puma was back and the cubs were out of sight (except to eagle eyed Jorge). We sat watching her yawn, stretch and roll for about 75 minutes before she got up and headed off for her evening hunt leaving the cubs behind. She walked to one of the estancia fences and jumped it before going out of sight.

We hiked back passed the vehicle, across the road and up the steep hill side so we could watch her walk up the valley towards the only guanaco that could be seen in the distance. Jorge was concerned we may disturb her hunt so at around 6:30pm we left her and returned to the vehicle.

Alan wanted to stop to photograph an ice rainbow and as Cesar stopped he pulled to one side of the road and drove the front right wheel off the carriageway getting us stuck. This amused Sebastian as he couldn’t understand why Cesar needed to move the car to one side of the road when we were the only ones on the closed road. I suggested we could all get in the opposite corner of the vehicle so the rear wheel could get traction and it worked first try.

Shortly after our rainbow drama we spotted puma number 6, it was sat on the hill side up from the road. It walked along the hill and up and over it where a guanaco was lay down. The puma went into hunting mode and we watched it slink along towards the guanaco. Once it had spotted the puma it got onto its feet and the puma straight away abandoned the hunt and walked towards our vehicle crossing the road behind us. We carried on towards the hotel arriving back around 8:30pm.

About 45 minutes later Sebastian told us another puma had been spotted by Jorge along the park boundary fence so we headed out back onto the trail. We had walked about 15 minutes when we saw puma number 7 again in the grass on the estancia side of the fence. When it saw us looking at her, she got up and walked along the fence and came through to the park side and across the trail. It walked up a small hill and out of sight.

We carried on along the trail and then to the right of us in the park was another puma (number 8)! The weather had brighten with the dark rain clouds blown from covering the sun to create a moody background to the puma. Puma number 7 came over the hill and spotting the second puma got down low into a hunting stance and very slowly moved towards it. It took it 10 minutes to creep along on its stomach and when puma number 8 was looking in the opposite direction puma 7 finally pounced on the other puma. In the blink of an eye the puma 8 spun round onto its back in a submissive positon totally defusing the situation.

After a short period of sniffing some scents left on plants the two pumas walked off together, jumped the park boundary fence and headed onto the estancia land.

Jorge came down from his high view point to look at our face shots of the two pumas and said they were unrelated females. The one doing the pouncing (number 7) was the sister of the puma with no tail featured in the BBC documentary Patagonia Earth’s Secret Paradise. Jorge left us to follow the pumas and as we were about to climb over the fence I spotted a skunk, we stopped to photograph it before we climbed over onto the estancia land and walked towards where Jorge and the pumas were. Jorge had spotted a third puma (number 9), a male and we were to attempt to see it.

When we got up to where Jorge was we found he was quite shaken by what he had witnessed. The male and the sister of ‘no-tail’ (puma 7) had fought each other with the female falling many metres from the cliff. She had moved out of sight by the time we arrived and the other female (puma 8) was clearly agitated by what had occurred. The male had followed the fallen female down the cliff side (climbed down) and was now resting at the bottom. The other female walked off in the opposite direction back towards the park.

We stayed with the male for a short while before starting our walk back to the wildlife trail, along the walk we watched a herd of guanaco jumping the fence and then back to the vehicle. We arrived back at the hotel at 11:30am.

We were back out again at 3pm and this time we got lucky and saw the armadillo at the campsite. Then back to the wildlife trail, stopping for guanaco and a fox, and onwards to where we had left Jorge this morning where the puma fight has occurred.  The male had moved on and no-tails sister was out in open view from the top of the ‘cliff’. I took the tripod with me and set up on the edge of the cliff looking down to her and waited for her to move. She struggled to her feet, it was clear she had hurt herself when she fell earlier today. Although in pain it was good to see that there was no injury to her skin, so hopefully it was only muscular damage. She slowly hobbled her way to a patch of sun and after more than an hour with her we slowly made our way back to the vehicle photographing some birds and another fox along the way. We got back to the hotel around 8pm.