In 2024, we led our annual pumas of Patagonia photo tours in late November. It was yet another fantastic trip filled with lots of pumas, laughs, happy tears, and delicious foods. Check out all the photos and stories in our Pumas of Patagonia Photo Tour 2024 Highlights report below!
Highlights of the 2024 Puma Photo Tour
Pumas: We spent significant time with four different pumas, including Amarga, a young adult female puma and Petaka, a six year old female, and her two almost fully grown cubs (male and female). Extreme caution is taken during puma encounters, where we as guides ensure the safety of the clients by observing behavior, stand next to the clients when the cats are close, and asking the clients to make eye contact.
Petaka and Cubs: We first found Petaka and her two kittens snuggled up on a cliff, out of the wind. They were relaxed, sleeping during the heat of the day. We just settled in and waited, knowing they would get up sooner than later.
Once they raised from their slumber they would show each other lots of affection through nuzzling and play! They did this on all the days when we spent time with them and gave us amazing looks for photos along the way.
One morning we saw a truly unique behavior, when the male cub approached the water to drink. However, after finishing his drink, instead of returning to his mother, he entered the water (cautiously) and then defecated.
Amarga: We spent some really wonderful hours with Amarga, following her as she hunted for food. She is Petaka’s daughter, from a previous litter. She can be distinguished by her very gray color, and smaller statue, plus some unique facial markings.
Our best sighting of the trip came on the last day. We were following Amarga as she was walking through the patagonian landscape. After a couple of kilometers she was nearing a pond. I though the probabilities of her drinking were low (she didn’t seem to have eaten recently), but just in case got our guests into position for reflection photos. She zigzagged and then made her way down to the pond and drank. It was incredible.
After quenching her thirst she continued. She kept stopping at bushes smelling them. I figured she was looking for bird eggs (I had seen Blinka do the same years ago). She moved from bush to bush. She did so for over an hour. All of a sudden her interest peeked. She lunged into the thickets and when she emerged, she was holding a European hare baby in her mouth. Considering how skinny she looked we were all happy she got at least a small meal. To our surprise, instead of eating it right away, she dropped it, and chased it, playing with it for over an hour before finally consuming it. She gave us so many different chances to photographer her pursue her prey, it was incredible. Of course, once the rabbit was finally dead, there too was a sigh of relief.
Species List for our Pumas of Patagonia Photo Tours in 2024
Mammals
| Puma | Puma concolor |
| South American Gray Fox | Lycalopex griseus |
| Guanaco | Lama guanicoe |
| European Hare | Lepus europaeus – Introduced |
Birds
| Lesser Rhea | Rhea pennata |
| Black-necked Swan | Cygnus melancoryphus |
| Coscoroba Swan | Coscoroba coscoroba |
| Upland Goose | Chloephaga picta |
| Crested Duck | Lophonetta specularioides |
| Chiloe Wigeon | Mareca sibilatrix |
| Yellow-billed Pintail | Anas georgica |
| Yellow-billed Teal | Anas flavirostris |
| Eared Dove | Zenaida auriculata |
| Red-gartered Coot | Fulica armillata |
| Southern Lapwing | Vanellus chilensis |
| Brown-hooded Gull | Chroicocephalus maculipennis |
| Dolphin Gull | Leucophaeus scoresbii |
| Kelp Gull | Larus dominicanus |
| Black-browed Albatross | Thalassarche melanophris |
| Southern Giant-Petrel | Macronectes giganteus |
| Magellanic Cormorant | Leucocarbo magellanicus |
| Imperial Shag | Phalacrocorax atriceps |
| Andean Condor | Vultur gryphus |
| Cinerous Harrier | Circus cinereus |
| Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle | Geranoaetus melanoleucus |
| Short-eared Owl | Asio flammeus |
| Southern Caracara | Caracara plancus |
| White-throated Caracara | Daptrius albogularis |
| American Kestrel | Falco sparverius |
| Austral Parakeet | Enicognathus ferrugineus |
| Scale-throated Earthcreeper | Upucerthia dumetaria |
| Buff-winged Cinclodes | Cinclodes fuscus |
| Austral Negrito | Lessonia rufa |
| Fire-eyed Diucon | Pyrope pyrope |
| Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant | Agriornis montanus |
| Southern House Wren | Troglodytes musculus |
| Austral Thrush | Turdus falcklandii |
| Correndera Pipit | Anthus correndera |
| Rufous-collared Sparrow | Zonotrichia capensis |
| Long-tailed Meadowlark | Leistes loyca |
