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The puma is present from the North to the South of the American continent, but it’s in the extreme South of Chile that the largest specimens are found.
The Lord of Patagonia
Both admired and feared, sometimes hated, the Puma is none other than the Lord of these places. I have been hoping to cross his path for a long time. I have heard so much about him, through testimonies, stories, tales and legends.
The puma resides in the vicinity of Torres del Paine National Park. I have already been here several times, during my previous reconnaissance trips to southern Chile, hoping to catch a glimpse of it, even fleetingly. But I have never had this chance…
This time it’s different, the Puma is the only reason for my coming, for the adventure that awaits me: a photo safari dedicated to the Puma. I traveled here for him, to track him and observe his splendor. After a long road, the first glimmers of a wild and magical world are emerging.
The climate is like the beauty of the landscapes that face me: elusive… Here, in the Great South of Patagonia, the three kingdoms – animal, mineral and plant – have made a pact to better sublimate themselves.
With a knot in my stomach, I humbly enter his territory, his kingdom, where I hope to meet the Great PUMA!!
On the trail of the Puma
For this adventure I am accompanied by Roberto, who is known to be the best guide and expert on pumas in the region. For four days, we both crisscross the thousands of hectares of Patagonian steppe as far as the eye can see.
The landscapes are exceptional. No human presence, 360 degrees are massifs, lagoons and lakes that surround us. We also observe many rock formations that are potential hiding places for pumas, who like to blend in to rest.
The fauna is abundant here, in the South of Chilean Patagonia: guanacos by the hundreds, rheas “ñandú” (small ostriches), Patagonian foxes, condors, many birds and so on… But the lord of these places, the Patagonian Puma, has mastered the art of movement and camouflage to perfection. What a fantastic animal…
We have been tracking him for three days now. Every day we leave at 6:30 in the morning to arrive at the site at daybreak. Then begins an intense search with binoculars, and especially with a thermal telescope that captures the infrared radiation (heat waves) emitted by the body, which varies according to its temperature.
But our greatest ally for this research is the guanaco. The guanaco is in fact the favorite prey of the puma, and when the guanaco feels threatened by a puma, it’s nervous and emits a rather characteristic warning sound, which therefore signals to us a possible presence of a puma in the area.
For the moment, we have observed several pumas from a distance, when we arrive on site, they are no longer there, they disappear into the wild. Until then, we have not observed anything very closely, I am a little frustrated by the way. The climatic conditions are however optimal: clear sky with a big blue, and no wind, it’s even unexpected for the region.
Tomorrow is the last day and it will be, it seems, the day of the long-awaited meeting for me. Indeed, we have just found a dead guanaco that will be enough for several meals, for one or more pumas. We’ll be there at daybreak, camouflaged, and we’ll wait for the appearance of the Lord of the Patagonian steppe…
The long-awaited meeting with the Puma
As usual, we were on site at 8:00 am, about thirty meters from the remains of the guanaco, which we had spotted the day before. We were ahead of the sun… will we succeed this time in getting ahead of the puma?
We held our breath, while looking around in all directions to see if a puma would appear. Only the sound of the silence of the steppe could be heard. An hour later and still nothing…
Suddenly, appearing out of nowhere, there it was! We saw the head of a puma on a natural promontory, in front of us. A shiver ran through my whole body, there it was in front of me, the lord of the Patagonian steppe, lying on its front legs, in a waiting position, on alert… Roberto identified quite quickly that it was a female of about four years old.
Surely this female puma must be observing everything from up there, she must certainly see and hear things imperceptible to us. What is she waiting for exactly? Finally, after a long moment, she got up and began to walk with incomparable elegance. I then saw all her beauty, her silhouette, her presence, her elegance…
With a fixed, impassive gaze, she walked towards the corpse of the guanaco and began her meal. All her senses were then alert, she did not stop looking everywhere, surely the presence of another puma in the vicinity worried her a little.
Once the feast was over, she stepped aside and started walking towards us, straight towards us… I felt my heart racing!! I had a hard time taking these pictures that would remain, for me, historic!!
The puma passed five meters from us, I then met its gaze, the gaze of a puma!! What a thrill!!!! She so serene, me a little worried I must admit. She had seen us from the beginning, it’s obvious, but a priori we represented no threat to her. Or did hunger take over her instinct of prudence??
Then, like a gift from heaven, it positions itself on another promontory, with the towers of Paine as a backdrop. I had dreamed of this shot in my wildest dreams and here is the universe that offers me these magical moments!!
I snap away with pictures, I don’t know if I should take close-ups, wide shots; how to set the ISO. I shoot completely on instinct. Then, suddenly, she bent over, looked into the distance and began to run away down below to get away, and disappear as quickly as she had appeared. She must have spotted a threat to her. We, on our side, are alone in the world…
Roberto and I looked at each other, speechless, I understood in his expression that we had just experienced a unique and magical moment. This morning will remain engraved in my memory forever. I was far from suspecting that another major encounter was going to happen at the end of the day…
The Grail: A mother puma and her cubs
After a picnic in a sumptuous, breathtaking site, barely recovered from our emotions, we resume our search for a possible new observation.
Roberto explained to me that the female puma had left a little hastily, probably because of the presence of an alpha male nicknamed “Dark”, who surely wanted to take part in the feast, very difficult to approach.
In the late afternoon, we received an alert from another guide, who had spotted an adult female puma with her two cubs. They were in another area, completely opposite our position.
We were excited to see a new scene of Patagonian wildlife. Would we make it in time? So many times the puma had deserted the area once we had arrived.
When we arrived, the guide and his client were there, and I saw sparks in their eyes. There were four of us who were able to observe this unique scene. An adult female puma with her two kittens, about four months old!
We were able to observe them for almost two hours, watching the little ones play among themselves, under the eye of their attentive mother, on the lookout for any possible danger.
Roberto then had the good intuition to move to another point, further down, towards a watering hole. He insisted on staying together during this somewhat “daring” or even “risky” (?) move… The notion of “group” being quite relative, knowing that there were only four of us in the middle of these wild expanses, I told myself at the time.
Then, as if by magic, the three felines headed towards the river to cool off. We were on their way and of course, again, we were spotted (and accepted) from the very beginning of our arrival.
The mother passed right in front of us, impassive; what presence! There, I understood why the nickname of the puma is “the mountain lion”. This very imposing female, about 1.70m long, had the appearance of a lioness, majestic… Except that we are not in Africa, not on board a Jeep, but on foot right next to these felines! What sensations and what emotions!
I watched in the distance as the three pumas merged into the landscape and disappeared again. I felt like I had dreamed this scene, but no, it was real! I am aware that I had experienced a unique day, in exceptional conditions. A gift from the wild animal world and from Mother Nature.
When the guide who accompanies you takes as many photos as you, or even more, it’s because the encounter that is offered to you is out of the ordinary. Moreover, Roberto confided to me at the time, that in the presence of tourists, he should not take photos. I then answered him quite instinctively: “But Roberto, I am not a tourist, but a neighbor!”
And you, would you dare to venture into the territory of the Puma?