Richard Collett | 19 August 2023
The return of the wild in Argentina's Patagonia Park
Locals in Argentina’s deep south are switching from ranching to eco-tourism as part of an effort to rewild Patagonia Park, the region’s newest reserve...
Locals in Argentina’s deep south are switching from ranching to eco-tourism as part of an effort to rewild Patagonia Park, the region’s newest reserve...
“This is the time of the puma,” said Nicolás Guastavino, communications officer for the conservation foundation Rewilding Argentina. A smile broke across his lips as we drove into Patagonia Park. The sun was setting a deep orange over the mountains that mark Argentina’s border with Chile, and a herd of guanacos – a gangly mammal similar to a llama – was walking nonchalantly across the gorse-studded steppe as our car slowed to a crawl. “We have to keep our eyes open. I’ve seen puma along this road before,” continued Guastavino, a former fashion designer who has retrained in conservation. “The guanacos are out in the open so they can spot pumas approaching.”
I strained my eyes in the dying light as a sudden movement threw up dust on the road ahead. There was no sign of a puma; instead, a small flock of lesser rheas scurried across the hillside, the long necks of these flightless birds bobbing up and down in unison as they hurried away from the guanacos. Our quarry remained elusive, and it was almost dark by the time we arrived at La Posta de los Toldos, a former cattle ranch that is now a guesthouse for hikers and wildlife enthusiasts exploring Argentina’s ambitious new rewilding zone.
Plans are in motion to restore 180,000 hectares of nature-depleted ranch land in Santa Cruz Province that had been overgrazed for centuries by non-native livestock. Known as Patagonia Park, the project is being led by Rewilding Argentina and is impacting more than just wildlife. As fences are being torn down and new species reintroduced, locals are turning from ranching to eco-tourism in an effort to establish a nature-based economy in what could become Argentina’s next national park – or at least a giant extension to neighbouring Patagonia National Park. Its future is, as yet, still undecided.
A guanaco stares down onlookers (Richard Collett)
The steppe of Patagonia Park yields the sight of a pair of lesser rheas (Richard Collett)
“This is the first park in Argentina dedicated to just steppe and canyon,” Guastavino explained the next morning as we hiked along the rim of Cañadón Río Pinturas (Pinturas River Canyon). “Everywhere else is about big mountains and glaciers.”
The Pinturas River Canyon unfolded like a watercolour painting below us, a stark and unexpected change from the red earth and green gorse that smothers the vast steppe surrounding it. Located a minimum of 24 hours’ drive south of Buenos Aires – just off Ruta 40 and a short distance from the ranching and mining town of Perito Moreno – Patagonia Park’s seemingly sparse landscape has a subtle beauty of its own. Its expanse has been shaped by volcanic activity, and part of it is hidden among canyons carved by glaciers.
I followed Guastavino down into the canyon 200 metres below, enthralled by my introduction to the park’s wildlife. A condor circled in the blue skies above and the high-pitched warning bleats of the guanaco herds – which sound like something between a scream and a laugh – echoed off the red-brown rocks.
But the landscape of Patagonia Park wasn’t always this wild; the sun-bleached bones of cattle speak of a different story entirely. Guastavino pointed out iron fence poles that had been cleared of wire. These once divided Patagonia Park into ranches where cattle and sheep would graze the semi-arid landscape. Ranchers would redirect rare watercourses to hydrate their parched grazing grounds, puma were shot on sight by farmers out of fear they might prey on the flocks of sheep, and native species, such as the docile huemul deer, disappeared altogether after the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century.
The colours of Tierra de Colores are caused by minerals in the rocks (Richard Collett)
In an effort to stem the tide of desertification, Guastavino explained how Rewilding Argentina began buying up ranches in the area piecemeal in 2011, before Patagonia Park was established as a reserve in 2014. Funded by private donors, and working on the same model pioneered by the Tompkins Foundation that had proved successful in creating national parks over the border in Chile, this area was initially chosen for rewilding because Lake Buenos Aires is one of the last known breeding sites for the hooded grebe, a ‘critically endangered’ diving bird with a population of fewer than 800 individuals.
It may have all started with the hooded grebe, but Rewilding Argentina has expanded its ambitions over the years. It has since purchased 60,000 hectares of land in the region, with plans to extend this to 180,000 in order to create a continuous rewilding corridor that runs to the border with Chile. Now the aim is to bring back wildlife and redevelop the economy around nature tourism, though that is easier said than done.
Sofia Heinonen, Rewilding Argentina’s executive director, has helped oversee successful rewilding programmes in Argentina’s Iberá wetlands and El Impenetrable National Park. A lifelong conservation warrior, she strolled purposefully along the Pinturas River Canyon as she explained to me how the deeply ingrained ranching and gaucho (cowboy) culture of Argentina meant that new national parks inevitably met with resistance from local people.
the visitor centre at the entrance to Patagonia Park is a good place to learn about the work being done here (Richard Collett)
Sofiao Fava leads tours of Cueva de las Manos (Richard Collett)
“Cattle ranchers don’t like wild places without fences,” said Heinonen. “They see pumas as a threat and guanacos as competition for the grasses. For them, more national parks means less grazing land. And if they are neighbours to a national park, they feel their business and way of life are under threat.”
Consequently, one of her biggest jobs has been getting information out into the community. “It’s about changing perceptions,” Heinonen said, explaining that Rewilding Argentina has a team of passionate communication experts, like Guastavino, precisely because they need to convince Argentinians that rewilding is a positive agenda that can generate economic opportunities for them.
I spent five days exploring 41.3km of new trails that opened this year as part of a plan to entice nature tourists to an area of southern Argentina that is more often than not bypassed by travellers heading further south to big Patagonian sights, such as El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier. A new planetarium is opening to take advantage of the region’s dark skies, while five new campsites now offer outdoor stays with a morning wake-up call from the guanacos and evenings spent around a traditional asado grill. And that’s just the start. Eventually, as Patagonia Park becomes more established and, hopefully, gains national park status, there will be ample chances for locals to work in tourism and conservation instead of extractive industries such as mining or ranching.
The hike into Pinturas River Canyon is rather exposed (Richard Collett)
It’s not just wildlife at stake. The park is also protecting an ancient human culture that can be seen across some 80 archaeological sites. A winding gravel road led to a small visitor centre and viewing area precariously located on a rocky ledge halfway up the steep cliffs of the Pinturas River Canyon. From there I walked a series of concrete steps constructed under a long overhang of red rock that sheltered the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Cueva de las Manos (Cave of the Hands).
Hidden under a protrusion of rock that extended horizontally for maybe a hundred metres, a tapestry of red, white and black painted hands had been stencilled across the rusty-brown rock of the cliffs. The hands were eerily fresh and looked as if they could have been painted weeks ago, yet they had been carbon-dated to around 7500 BC. The rocks were brightly stained with hundreds of these hands, the pigments crudely mixed from blood, dirt and water and then sprayed onto the walls using bone pipes by Patagonia’s earliest human inhabitants.
Life for Patagonia’s hunter-gatherers revolved around wildlife, and among the hundreds of painted hands are recognisable depictions of the prey that they hunted in the valley below, including guanaco and puma. As the artistic styles of these Patagonian ancients evolved, abstract motifs, zig-zags and mythological creatures are also depicted on the walls, while images of pregnant guanacos could be seen as desperate cries to their gods in times of scarcity. However, there’s one animal depicted among these ancient cave paintings that I can’t see in Patagonia Park anymore, and that’s the huemul deer.
It’s not just handprints that have been found on the walls of Cueva de las Manos – images of early life in the canyon have also been discovered (Richard Collett)
The waters of Pinturas River Canyon have long been vital to life on the arid steppe, particularly the guanacos (Richard Collett)
Rewilding Argentina plans to change this. Conservation director Sebastián Di Martino later showed me the new quarantine pen they are building in a nearby canyon to hold the huemul deer that will be reintroduced from surviving populations else where in South America. The rewilded valley is also home to growing numbers of Wolffsohn’s viscacha, a large cliff-dwelling rodent that has been returned here after disappearing entirely from the area.
“We don’t know all of the animals that once existed here, but our goal is to restore these historic ecosystems as much as we can,” Di Martino said as we hiked along the rewilded valley. “We can’t bring back everything, so we aim for the keystone species. These are usually the big predators that have often gone extinct in the area – pumas, for example.”
Pumas are vital to the rewilding plan, as they create carrion for the condors and help to regulate guanaco numbers on the steppe. But they’re also controversial. Rewilding Argentina has been attempting to change traditional perceptions in the community by collaring, tracking and studying the pumas to show ranchers on the surrounding farms that they rarely prey on their livestock.
“We found that 72.4% of hunting events were guanacos,” explained Di Martino, “12.8% were lesser rheas and 4.6% were sheep. Only a small number of pumas eat sheep, so we can use this information to say that a national park isn’t going to be a problem for ranchers.”
Patagonia Park is the first reserve in the Americas to focus on the landscape of the steppe (Richard Collett)
One man who doesn’t need convincing of this is Facundo Epul. He grew up in a ranching family but has developed a very different attitude to these creatures, and now offers puma-tracking tours. The next day, I joined him in search of a local puma named Bonita. When we meet he is wearing a traditional Argentine boina hat on his head and has a camera trap slung across his shoulders. Using a mixture of GPS positioning, puma tracks and guanaco carcass locations, we set off in hope.
“If a puma caught a sheep, the ranchers would shoot the puma. But no one studied them,” Epul told me as we hiked. “Now the rewilding programme is protecting the pumas, the next generation is changing their minds about them. I didn’t like ranching but I love the area, and if I didn’t work with the pumas I’d have to move.”
Epul’s deep understanding of these animals was clear towards the end of his tour. After I’d all but given up on the day’s chase, he directed us to the edge of yet another deep canyon. As I was distracted by the panorama unfolding before me, one of our group pointed out a distant shape reflecting the sunlight from the opposite side of the steep ravine. Straining my eyes, I suddenly realised that this was Bonita, fast asleep in the entrance to a cave. My heart pounded as I struggled to unpack my camera, then I surrendered to the moment and just stared, awestruck, at the animal that was so vital to the ecosystem I’d spent days immersed in.
As we watched, Epul explained that while it’s still not illegal to shoot a puma in Argentina, he’s trying to convince the local hunters, who are paid by ranchers, to turn to tourism instead. And though he remains currently the only puma-tracking guide offering tours in the area, he’s confident that he’ll have competition soon enough.
“There are only so many pumas you can kill,” said Epul. “I make more money per day in tourism than you ever can by shooting them.” He makes a persuasive argument; let’s just hope that the right people listen.
The Rewilding Argentina story began in 1997, when Doug Tompkins (the founder of adventure clothing company North Face) purchased tens of thousands of hectares of nature-depleted swampland in north-eastern Argentina. The Iberá Wetlands, home to bogs, lakes and lagoons, is South America’s second-largest wetland ecosystem. It is here that Rewilding Argentina has successfully reintroduced a vast number of large mammals that went extinct. Visit today and you’ll see giant anteaters, giant otters, tapirs, capybaras, and perhaps even the elusive jaguar.
Travel to the coast of Chubut Province and you can experience a unique rewilding project protecting one of Argentina’s largest biosphere reserves. Millions of hectares of coastal land, islands and sea, home to penguins, whales, dolphins, guanacos, armadillos and much more, await you along the ‘Blue Route’, a regenerative tourist circuit connecting the best eco-sites on the coast.
El Impenetrable National Park is a vast area of wilderness in Argentina’s remote north. Part of the Gran Chaco, a region that’s home to South America’s second-largest forest, El Impenetrable National Park is the perfect destination for adventure travellers. Kayaking, 4WD safaris and hiking are all ways to explore a depleted ecosystem that is being returned to its former glory, as Rewilding Argentina boosts jaguar, tapir and tortoise populations while helping Indigenous communities build a nature-based tourism economy.
The author gazes over the rim of Pinturas River Canyon
Getting there: The Portal Cañadón Pinturas is the main gateway to the new hiking trails and campsites within Patagonia Park, which lies off Ruta 40 in the north-west of Argentina’s Santa Cruz Province. It’s best visited on a road trip, although there is a bus station at Perito Moreno, a 45-minute drive north. The nearest airport is a six-hour drive away at Comodoro Rivadavia.
Activities: There are ten waymarked hiking trails, varying in length from 2.6km to 18km, that lead through and around the Pinturas River Canyon. There are guided tours of archaeological sites, including Cueva de las Manos, puma-tracking tours with Facundo Epul and many more outdoor activities, such as horse riding, camping and 4WD safaris.
Accommodation: Campsites can be booked in advance by emailing Patagonia Park’s Visitor Centre (parquepatagonia.arg@gmail.com); visit the website for more details. Limited accommodation is also available at La Posta de los Toldos, a former ranch turned guesthouse that also arranges and books tours and tour guides.
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