Blog and photos by Shelby Sawyer, Franklin and Marshall College
On Thursday, we left the hostel in Coyhaique to begin fieldwork in Cerro Castillo National Reserve. On the way, we picked up Carolina, a local expert on the endangered huemul deer and a talented wildlife photographer. We also picked up two guardaparques from CONAF, Nico and Pancho, who are experts on the Cerro Castillo Reserve and the wildlife it contains. After pulling off the main autopista, we drove along our first gravel road of the semester on our way to the campo, a rural family farm, where we would camp later that night. When we piled out of the car at the campo, we were greeted by clucking chickens and the smell of wood smoke in the air. The property, similar to a homestead, is positioned on the side of the beautiful Paloma River— fast, cold, and clean enough to drink from. That evening, we walked down to the riverside and pitched our tents in the grassy clearing, which offered views of the surrounding mountains.
Our first night of camping for the semester!
With Friday came our first day of fieldwork. After breakfast, we packed up camp and began our exploration of the reserve on foot. The focus of our day was to look for huemul deer; the species at the center of our time spent in the reserve. We planned to hike over the ridge to our campsite for the day. Along the way, we learned to identify its scat and tracks. Cerro Castillo, and other reserves like it, is an important refuge for the survival of huemul, as there are only a few thousand individuals remaining in the wild.
Beginning in an agricultural area, we walked along a gravel road for a time before we were surprised by a sighting of two huemul; an hembra and a cría (a female and a juvenile). We observed them through binoculars, and collected data on the encounter to later be entered into a database at basecamp in Cochrane.
A baby huemul and her mother were hiding in the grass, until a herd of cows behind us encouraged them to flee. Photo by Adam Spencer
The rest of the day was spent hiking and bushwhacking through challenging but beautiful terrain, learning how to identify many plant and animal species along the way. That night, we camped in a meadow on the other side of Lago Desierto, shielded from the wind by a grove of cherry trees. We picked a dessert of fresh cherries before heading to bed.
Camping in the wind break of a grove of cherry trees also makes dessert easy!
On Saturday, we split up into two groups to cover more ground in the reserve. One group headed for the cliffs, the other to the slopes of the Río Siete river valley. Although neither group spotted huemul, we continued to learn to identify many new plants and animals. Our hikes also earned us some amazing views of the river valley and of Cerro Castillo.
Cerro Castillo – the mighty peak the reserve is named after – rises above the Rio Siete Valley.
Sunday morning brought class and the time to leave our cherry grove campsite. We hiked back towards the campo alongside Lago Desierto, gaining stunning views of its turquoise waters as we went.
The bright blues of Lago Desierto, verdant greens, and steep cliffs were a dramatic welcome to Patagonia
After setting up camp on the side of the Paloma river once more, we were told to head up to the main house to prepare a dinner of leftovers and to have class. After a long day, some of us weren’t looking forward to this. When we arrived at the house, we were greeted by Señora Hortencia and her husband Juan, for a surprise asado; a traditional Chilean meal in which lamb is cooked for hours over an open fire. We ate family-style with potatoes, fried dough called sopapillas, and Chilean wine to wash it down. We all sat in their quincho, a structure designated specifically for asados, and enjoyed the fabulous handmade meal before us.
Aiden takes the honorary first cut of our delicious asado.
On Monday, we relaxed in the morning and worked on our journals before thanking our wonderful, generous hosts and leaving the campo to explore other parts of the reserve. Hortencia sent us off with hugs and a jar full of handmade cherry jam she had made that morning. We stayed the night at a campground near the guardaparque station, and spent the next morning with Nico at the station learning about huemul, the research that they’ve been conducting on them, and the results of the research. We then went out into the field to learn radio telemetry, and used it to locate one of the collared huemul in the park, Lento. That night we shared a final dinner with Carolina and Nico and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. The next day would bring the long drive to basecamp in Cochrane.
Team Aguila with CONAF Guardafauna Nicolas Fernandez Ferrada celebrate a successful week of field work at the Cerro Castillo National Reserve. Photo by Adam Spencer
Nicolas Ferrara of CONAF explains to Team Aguila how to use radio telemetry to track radio collared huemul. Photo by Adam Spencer