Mother Puma in Torres del Paine National Park
Mom Goes For a Walk
This mother puma was very tolerant of us. While I haven’t been fortunate enough to see and photograph a puma/mountain lion in the U.S., I’m sure a mountain lion here would would not be as tolerant as this mother was in Patagonia. I don’t know why there is this difference. They are killed just as unmercifully in Chile as they are in the U.S. My first thought was that they are the apex predator there and therefore not used to being afraid of anything. But that can’t explain it. They may not be the apex predator in places like Yellowstone National Park, but they are in places like my home state of California. Maybe it’s that they tend to live in much more open environments in Patagonia than they do in places like California where they tend to stick to the timber. They don’t have that choice in much Torres del Paine. They see us and we see them all the time. So, why are they so easy to see there? I don’t know.
Any ideas?
