Animals in Chile by Oliver

Andean Fox (or Culpeo)

This blog post is about animals in Chile that I have seen and photographed.

I took this photo of the Andean Fox near Lago Grey, in Torres del Paine National Park.  We saw many of these foxes in Chile.  This is a pale one, some are very red. They eat rodents,  rabbits, lizards, birds, plants and sometimes sheep. We saw lots of these on farms (estancias).

Magellan Penguins on Chiloe Island

The Magellan penguins were first spotted in 1520 by Ferdinand Magellan when he was exploring the water later called the Magellan Strait.  They are also found in Brasil, Argentina & the Falkands, but only in South America.  I saw these in Punta Arenas and the island of Chiloe.  It as really funny watching them trying to get onto the rocks and getting washed back off by the ocean.   One clever one, who had obviously been doing it for a long time, did it first time by riding the waves.  Others were using the seaweed to hold on.  I also saw Humbolt penguins named after the current they follow.  They are threatened due to over-fishing and water pollution so it was quite nice to see them in the wild.  We also saw Sea Otters, but they were very quick and hard to photograph.  They were in pairs and lived near the penguin island.  They float on their backs to eat the shellfish like oysters  and small fish.

Nandu.

The Nandu (or Rhea) live  on grass lands (pampas) only in South America, but some escaped from a zoo in Germany and are now breeding. they have no ability to fly although have big wings. We saw these on the way to El Calafate.

Guanaco

We saw these Guanacos in Torres Del Paine National Park, where there were lots of them in the herds of around ten female adults and their babies.  There are lots of them in the park as their only predator is the mountain lion or puma, and there are no sheep or cows allowed in the park to take their grass.  They have evolved to have thicker skin on their necks to help protect them from attacks. My Uncle Tim saw one being eaten by a Puma and he said the plains looked like the graveyard from the Lion King!

Dead Armadillo

I saw this dead Armadillo by the side of the road when we stopped on our way back from Los Glaciers National Park.  I had already seen two live ones at the Estancia La Margarita, but they are nocturnal and hard to find (unless dead). There are Armadillos all over the Americas and lots of different types, like the Nine-Banded Armadillo.  They often get killed by cars because they jump 3-4 feet in the air when startled and hit the underneath of the car!

Traro, from the falcon family was sitting by the side of the road on Volcano Osorno.

Birds – We saw so many different types of birds; sea birds, vultures and birds of prey in all parts of Chile.   We didn’t know the exact name of them all but they were beautiful to watch gliding around the skies above us.  Anyone with an interest in birds would just love it here.

 Finally a word about dogs.  There are dogs everywhere in South America, some have collars and most don’t.  But people here often don’t have fences so it is no wonder.  Every dog I saw I wanted to take home with me, but we couldn’t.