Finding Summertime in the Chacabuco Valley

By Sara Wall, Carleton College

After spending the past two months exploring westwards into the depths of the Patagonian Fjords, the Magellanic rainforests, and Sphagnum bogs, it was time to head eastwards to a land of sunshine. We tucked away our rain pants, packed sunblock and shorts, and set off to the Chacabuco Valley, location of the future Patagonia National Park (PNP), in search of summertime, Guanaco, and Ñandú.

On Wednesday, we loaded up the trucks, said our final goodbyes to Team Zorro, and drove up the Carretera Austral to a whole new ecosystem: The Patagonian Steppe. Upon pulling off along the road into the park, a wide open, sage-colored valley greeted us. Reddish plateaus sloping off into the horizon of snowy, jagged peaks, and grasses swaying in the wind among the spiky cushion plants—it was a view unlike any we had yet seen in Patagonia. And then we saw our first Guanacos. Silly llama-like animals standing out on dusty rock outcrops with their long, shaggy coats flowing in the breeze.

Stoic Guanaco standing on a viewpoint in the Chacabuco Valley. (Photo Credit: Sara Wall)

Despite having a goofy way of running and a tendency to hang their long mouths wide open when it’s hot out, the guancos are epic creatures when they stand out on rocks backdropped by breathtaking mountains on all sides. For the past four semesters Round River has been collaborating with Conservación Patagonica to record every guanaco sighted from the road in the PNP to create a census of the whole guanaco population in the valley. This semester, it was our turn to come to the valley and count guanaco.

Masie Anrod taking the bearing of a group of Guanaco on the side of the road. This information is recorded in our census. (Photo credit: Sara Wall)

As we drove into the Chacabuco Valley for the first time we were in awe of the sheer quantity of guanaco surrounding the road on all sides. Large groups of up to thirty could be seen dotting the dry landscape. Single males were spotted trotting about and best of all we observed chulengos, or baby guanaco, stumbling about near their mothers. By the end of our two days recording every guanaco seen from the roads in the park, we counted a total of 723 guanacos. In contrast, when Conservacion Patagonica purchased the land in the Chacabuco Valley in 2004, it was an estancia, or very large ranch, with over 11,000 sheep and 3,000 cattle grazing throughout its grasslands—and there were very few guanacos who could compete. Today, the pressure of livestock grazing is gone from the valley and guanacos are able to migrate back to their old range.

Group of Guanacos and a baby in the Chacabuco Valley. (Photo Credit: Ivan Langesfeld)

With our guanaco census complete it was time to move on to phase 2 of our trip: Ñandú fence surveys. We headed further east into the valley, where the climate is drier, the land a bit rockier, and the habitat more to the Ñandú’s liking. We spotted our first Ñandú as we drove east along the dusty road. Startled, the Ñandú sprinted away, which was when we noticed the 15 chicks running behind it. The Ñandú are incredible birds. As adults they stand taller than I and run faster than anything else around. The fathers take care of the chicks, who follow him around for 6 months, learning to eat and survive solely through imitating him.

We continued driving until we were as far east as possible while still remaining in Chile, and set up camp at the Predio Militar El Baker, the outpost of the Chilean Military. In this eastern region of the Chacabuco Valley there are a lot of fences. The international border is just a walk away and is made up of a barbed-wire fence curving to the north and south. The Chilean Military land is bordered with kilometers of fences, and nearby there’s a police outpost with even more fences truncating the valley.

Shannon, Zeke, Emma D., and Sara on their way to Argentina to renew their visas. (Photo credit: Valeria Briomes)

Fence we surveyed along the Argentina/Chile border. (photo credit: Sara Wall)

All of these fences run right through prime Ñandú habitat. So, our job was to walk all of the fence lines, marking their GPS coordinates and recording any sign of Ñandú on the inside and outside of the fences. We split into groups and began to transect through sunshine and a world of spiky plants, colorful wildflowers and red rocks. Some groups found Ñandu egg shells, feathers and scat, others found signs of puma or saw armadillos, and almost everyone ended the day a bit rosier than when we began.

Shannon, Ivan, Scott, and Zeke, surveying for sign of Ñandú along the police’s property line. (photo credit: Sara Wall)

Maiden’s Slipper (Calceolaria uniflora) flower found in the Chacabuco Valley. (Photo credit: Shannon Quinn)

Watching flamingos on the lake at sunset nearby the military base. (Photo Credit: Ivan Langesfeld)

After two days of walking all of the fence lines in the eastern-side of the valley we ended our Ñandú transects by stopping by Conservación Patagonica’s Ñandú captive breeding center. We got the pleasure of getting real up-close with some adorable juvenile Ñandú, who would curiously approach us at the fence with their large, quizzical eyes and try to nibble on all of our shiny belongings.

Juvenile Ñandú curiously peeping through the fence. (Photo Credit Eli Brunner)

Juvenile Ñandú at the Conservacion Patagonica captive breeding center. (Photo Credit Eli Brunner)

With the serious business out of the way, we headed back to the western side of the valley for a fun overnight trip up through high lakes along a plateau. There was some up hill climbing, meandering through lovely forests, evacuating a lake mid-swim after leeches were discovered, and a sunrise summit of Mt. Tamanguito. All in all, a great final adventure in the lovely Chacabuco Valley. Sad to leave, but also ready to get out of the sun, we piled back in the trucks and drove back to basecamp,waving goodbye to all of the guanacos along the way.