Chile's best!

[wilddog]

What a wonderful trip report full of information and amazing photographs of the wildlife and scenery. 

 

Great advert for Chile?

Edited July 25, 2018 by wilddog

[jeremie]

3 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

wow wow wow @jeremie what stunning photos. Can you describe what was involved in finding the pumas? how far did you walk, it looks like you got pretty close!

 

According to the fitness and interests of the group, as well as the logistics contracted, the process of finding the puma is very different.

 

Some guides can offer you trackers, they will track the puma and once they find one with good pics opportunities they will call the guide by radio and the group will come, usually they will not have to walk more than 30 minutes to reach the animals. I have personally absolutely no interest in doing so.

 

I prefer to be involved in the tracking myself. In this case, it is not compulsory to walk a lot, depending on the animals and luck.

 

In the case of the 7 pumas, there is a fantastic story behind the pictures. We were definitely frustrated, there were footprints everywhere and apart the first male we spot very quickly and first day, we were not succeeding in finding any puma. We knew we were very close, but nothing yet... 

We found on a small lake a one swan that seemed very weak. It tolerated we came very close, something very uncommon for this species. I think the cap of ice covering the lagoon prevented it to find its food, principally made of aquatic plants it founds underwater.

 

After some few shots, we continued to walk half and hour and decided to come back on our way. But the swan was gone... We thought... Maybe there is one puma out there...

 

5 meters ahead, we spotted one small head in the bushes. The wonderful female puma decided to cross the road, climb 20 meters up on a hill to reach... a huge male puma! This female was clearly in oestrus. But where was the swan? It appears that the male made the kill minutes after we left the place earlier and brought it up in the same place where he was resting!

 

On the shores of the lagoon, it was clear what had happened, with feathers and blood everywhere.

We decided to lunch here to make the puma confortable, there was no need to rush to take the pictures. After an hour and half, we decided to climb the steep 20 meters that separated us from the pumas. The female was clearly relaxed, but it appeared that the male showed strong signs that he was not tolerating us. We immediately decided to go down and change of place to track the 4 kittens family, which territory we knew was not so far from here.

 

After 2 hours of unsatisfying efforts, we decided to come back to the place of the 2 adults pumas. They were still there! But on the top of the hill there was a pair of little ears! and then the 3 other cubs appeared... They were looking down but where not very confident because of the presence of the large male puma. The female and him detected the presence of the cubs, the male displayed a fantastic flemen behavior. Meanwhile we had walked 200 meters to make space so that the kittens would feel safe to get down but nothing happened because of the male. We when decided to go up to the female puma to take the last shots of the day. Light was very difficult and the place was almost covered by fog. We started to walk up, when a third adult puma suddenly jumped 2 meters ahead of us out of the bushes!!!!! We had literally no idea that a third puma was there! There were a total of 7 pumas just there, 3 adults and 4 kittens. Who said that the pumas were solitary animals???

 

This adult female climbed up to the male and the second female. The male stood up too and made an impressive and athletic jump up on a rock. The two female stayed there for 30 seconds at a very close distance of perhaps two meters, and the other female then decided to go down directly in our direction! We retreated 10 meters back to let the space necessary so that she could feel safe to come to what we expected was a kill... This was a second swan just there, behind the bushes. We stayed with here for 10 minutes, taking hundreds of pictures while she was eating this kill.

 

This is a fantastics sighting, could you ever imagine that 2 females pumas would accept to share a kill, just under the eyes of a huge male puma? This behavior has largely been documented these 2 last years at Torres del Paine by biologist Nicolas Lagos, while Mark Elbroch hasta just published a paper documenting the same social interactions of pumas he observed during the last decade from Wyoming.

https://www.panthera.org/pumas-found-exhibit-behaviors-social-animals

 

The female finished the meal, crossed the road and reached the lagoon to drink. She then climbed back on the hill, called the kittens and disappeared in the mist...

Edited July 24, 2018 by jeremie
link

[Towlersonsafari]

At the risk of repeating myself....Wow again! what an exciting story thanks @jeremie

[jeremie]

The story of the black-necked swan from the misty Laguna de los Cisnes.

 

Please note that the scene of this crime literally mean the lake of the Swans. All seems that the fate of this poor animal was written.

 

[Atdahl]

@jeremie - simply stunning photos!   Many of them just take you breath away. Torres del Paine National Park is rising on my "must see" list thanks to you.

 

Alan

[xelas]

Brilliant photography, and the storytelling makes me rethinking also our 2019 plans. What about 4 weeks in August/September? Flying to Chile is awfull long so more time in the country is obligatory.

[Dave Williams]

Simply fabulous photos and what an advert for Chile!

I once watched a travel programme where the guide took the reporter to the very southern tip where there is a glacier. He produced a bottle of the finest malt whisky, two crystal glasses and proceeded to pour two measures to which he then added some glacial ice and announced the ice was over a million years old. OK, some might think you shouldn't be hacking off million year old ice but I have to say it left me impressed and gave me a bucket list idea I will probably never fulfil but you never know.

Patagonia is the only other place in the world where the Welsh language is spoken too, I have some distant relatives out there somewhere. 

[michael-ibk]

Simply gorgeous, @jeremie, thanks so much for sharing. High on my list, hopefully 2020.

[xelas]

On 8/10/2018 at 2:04 PM, Dave Williams said:

then added some glacial ice

 

And I was thinking that adding ice to malt whiskey is against all rules?!

[Dave Williams]

@xelasIt's the only thing allowed and you have to drink it before the ice melts which probably isn't a problem if it's lasted 1,000,000 years already!

[jeremie]

On 8/9/2018 at 9:51 PM, xelas said:

Brilliant photography, and the storytelling makes me rethinking also our 2019 plans. What about 4 weeks in August/September? Flying to Chile is awfull long so more time in the country is obligatory.

 

@xelas: That would be a great idea. Southern Chile is very rainy in winter, but the Northern regions will offer a great climate.

You could go for a week in Torres del Paine to find pumas and visit this little jewell, that might be combined with the king penguin colony in Tierra de Fuego Island and the Magellanic penguins of Isla Magdalena. Please note that the cruise to the glaciers of Tierra de Fuego is not available in winter, because the whales only stay in summer in the waters of the Magellanic Strait and migrate back to the tropics at this time of the year. Albatros and elephant seals migrate at this time of the year too.

 

Another good idea could be to walk in the snow in the Aracaunia region, which it the Northern tip of Patagonia. There are splendid areas in the Conguillio and Huerquehue national Parks that are very attractive in winter.

 

In the North of the country, you can go in the very popular San Pedro de Atacama area, which offers marvelous landscapes. From there, you can go to the Uyuni salt flats too crossing the Sur Lipez region with dozens of lakes crowded with flamingoes.

 

You could also combine Chile with Pantanal in Brazil, Iguazu in Argentina or Bolivia lowlands too.

[jeremie]

I would like to post further pictures quite unique of pumas interactions. Very little is known concerning the social behaviors of pumas, two papers were recently published in the scientific literature, the firs one form Mark Elbroch from Panthera NGO from his investigations led in Teton National Park in Wyoming, the second one is from Nicolas Lagos from Torres del Paine.

 

The first couple of pictures is a pair a puma in love... They were seen few days later mating by Nicolas Lagos while he was guiding a television team.

 

 

 

You should then remember that we left the area to check for a puma family of 4 cubs in another area not too far away, but we missed them. We then decided to come back to take further shots of the same two pumas, and we discovered that another female puma was testing on a swan. We surprised her and she climbed back to see the first female puma:

 

 

The first female puma then came down and began to eat the rest of the swan. This is a unique behavior rarely seen before, where two adult pumas share the same kill:

 

 

 

The second female continued her way and climb up and reached the huge male puma.

 

 

Please note that the 4 cubs were up on the hill and quite afraid to go down to the mother because of the male puma, who displayed a fantastic flemen actitud while smelling the cubs:

 

 

Edited August 18, 2018 by jeremie

[jeremie]

More pumas...

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2018 by jeremie

[SafariChick]

@jeremie These photos are absolutely stunning! I am so jealous of these sightings, but also of your beautiful photography!  How close do you actually get to the pumas in these sightings? From your description in post #27 it sounded like you were very close to them!

Edited August 19, 2018 by SafariChick

[jeremie]

5 hours ago, SafariChick said:

@jeremie These photos are absolutely stunning! I am so jealous of these sightings, but also of your beautiful photography!  How close do you actually get to the pumas in these sightings? From your description in post #27 it sounded like you were very close to them!

 

You are true, the puma in post #27 came very close to us. The key is to let the puma behave as natural as posible. They are of course aware of us and always keep and eye on us, but photographers should not by any means interrupt their behavior and annoy them. Depending on the pumas, you could come as close as 10 meters from them or stay 70 meters away. The more people the farer you should say away from them.

 

Some pumas are very confident, other are very wild. I remember of two young pumas unknown to our guide 4 years ago, the young male was literally terrified by humans. He was doing a nap on a rock and made an escape as fast as he opened an eye. This puma probably came from the private farms at the border of the park where people still illegally kill the cats, because they do kill their sheeps. This is one of the next challenges in the Torres del Paine ecosystem. Some private estancias are beginning conservation project, this sounds very exciting and I hope they will soon offer puma safari which would of course help a lot for the conservation of the cougar.

Edited August 19, 2018 by jeremie

[xelas]

Uh, for the opportunity to get at least close to your photos I would even brave the cold and the snow; but does it rain a lot in the southern region? Some of the parks you showed us looks equally spectacular.

[SafariChick]

29 minutes ago, xelas said:

Uh, for the opportunity to get at least close to your photos I would even brave the cold and the snow; but does it rain a lot in the southern region? Some of the parks you showed us looks equally spectacular.

 

Yes, I am wondering this also. You said in an earlier post that it is quite rainy in the south in the winter but it doesn't look like you had rain in your photos - and about how cold was it when you went @jeremie?

Edited to add that I just found this website that talks about how unpredictable the weather is in this park! https://www.cascada.travel/en/News/Weather-Torres-del-Paine-Why-It-So-Wild

Edited August 19, 2018 by SafariChick
added a link

[jeremie]

@xelas It rains a lot in Patagonia in winter, but Torres del Paine receives less rains because it is located East of the Andes.

It rains much more in Chiloé Island or in Aysen region, or in the Magellanic Archipelago in comparison. 

[jeremie]

Torres del Paine is much more than pumas...

 

Here are some pictures from South American grey foxes feeding on a two-days guanaco kills in the middle of a frozen lagoon. It seems that four different pumas including cub fed on the carcass, mountain lions' footprints were almost everywhere around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that you should be bored with these cougar pics, but I cannnot keep this couple of captures for myself...

 

 

[TonyQ]

@jeremie

Great to see more wonderful photos. I think some of your photos are the best I have ever seen of wild pumas - magnificent.

[ForWildlife]

Fantastic photos! You mentioned that that was no wind, is that typical for that time of the year or were you lucky with the weather?

[jeremie]

10 hours ago, TonyQ said:

@jeremie

Great to see more wonderful photos. I think some of your photos are the best I have ever seen of wild pumas - magnificent.

 

Thank you very much @TonyQ for you kind comment! As a remarkable wildlife photographer I really appreciate your opinion about this serie of pictures.

[jeremie]

9 hours ago, ForWildlife said:

Fantastic photos! You mentioned that that was no wind, is that typical for that time of the year or were you lucky with the weather?

 

@ForWildlife Locals told me that summer is likely more windy compared to winter. I think climate is more stable in winter but storms can happen throughout the year with less occurrence in winter.

[mapumbo]

On 7/23/2018 at 11:36 AM, jeremie said:

 

Please re-visit the idea for 2019, that  would be very sad you can't visit Chile. Chiloé Island and Torres del Paine make a great combination. If you wish I could help you to plan this trip to lower the costs.

@jeremie @janzin 

We are hoping to go to Patagonia in 2019.  I just came across this stunning trip report.  I checked out the web site for patagonia journeys, but it is in Spanish so I couldn't make out anything from it.  I then emailed their contact last night.

My wife and I would be interested in doing something similar to what you have done to see the wildlife and beauty of Patagonia.  We would appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[jeremie]

On 9/16/2018 at 6:25 PM, mapumbo said:

@jeremie @janzin 

We are hoping to go to Patagonia in 2019.  I just came across this stunning trip report.  I checked out the web site for patagonia journeys, but it is in Spanish so I couldn't make out anything from it.  I then emailed their contact last night.

My wife and I would be interested in doing something similar to what you have done to see the wildlife and beauty of Patagonia.  We would appreciate any help.

Thanks.

 

Roberto will surely answer you as soon as he can. If you need any help be sure I would try to give you a hand!