by Wren Garrison, of University of Vermont Sky Island Borderlands Student Program Spring 2021 – WEEK 1 From the first moment I stepped foot in the abandoned old mining town of Ruby, my home for the next three months, I…
By Lucca Sterrer of University of Vermont Walking through the rich forests of Southern Patagonia, it is not uncommon to be approached by one or a few of these brightly colored, curious little birds. Thorn-tailed Rayaditos (Aphrastura spinicauda) are…
By Anna Bosco of Oberlin College When I think of Patagonia, one of the first images that comes to mind is that of vast, hilly expanses covered in neneo bushes. Neneo (Mulinum spinosum), a medium-sized cushion plant, dominates the arid…
Kira Warm of Sara Lawrence College The Rhea penneta, commonly known as Lesser Rhea in English (or Ñandu in Spanish), is a flightless bird that looks similar to a small ostrich. These birds inhabit open scrub grasslands in Patagonia as…
By Ayana Harscoet of Bowdoin College In the very south of South America, far from the deserts of northern Africa and central Asia, lives a close relative of the camel: the lesser-known guanaco, or Lama guanicoe. These slender, graceful-looking camelids…