The Land of the Giants
It was the land of the Patagonian giants, the Tehuelche, but it is also the footprint of other extinct giants: the dinosaurs. Giganotosaurus, argentinosaurus, patagotitan... Patagonia collects superlatives! It was in 1882, in the Neuquén region, that the first dinosaur bones were discovered in Patagonia. One year later, a settler named Herman Eberhardt discovered an imposing cave in the vicinity of Puerto Natales. Inside, he uncovered a thick, red fleece encrusted with ossicles. Chance brought a Swedish scientist, Otto Nordenskjöld, to the area. He then certifies the discovery of a prehistoric herbivorous animal called mylodon darwinii (or giant sloth, as big as an ox), which disappeared several thousand years ago. Palaeontologists then explored the famous cave and unearthed actual bones of thehippidum, the horse's ancestor; other evidence related to mylodon was also unearthed. It was not until the 1990s that Patagonia really began to reveal itself as a deposit of incredible fossils. At the end of the 20th century, in less than ten years, No Man's Land Patagonia became the cradle of spectacular excavations revealing a multitude of hitherto unknown species of dinosaurs. It was in the small town of El Chocon, since nicknamed "The Valley of the Dinosaurs", that traces of iguanodons, four-metre-high carnivores, were imprinted in the mud some 500 million years ago. Through erosion, the fossil-printed soil has finally brought back the entrails of its past. In July 1993, a mechanic stumbled upon a huge femur measuring 1.43 metres in height that once belonged to the largest carnivore on the planet: the giganotosaurus, a 14.50-metre, 8-tonne monster with teeth up to 21 centimetres long. Later, theargentinosaurus was recognized as the largest herbivore in the world with its 40 meters long and its weight exceeding 100 tons. Then, a rebound in the year 2012 in the province of Chubut when a ranch reported the presence of fossilized bones on its land. Once there, paleontologists made an astonishing discovery: 150 fossils were unearthed and no less than six animals were identified. About 100 million years ago, these young titanosaurs were the largest species of terrestrial dinosaurs ever identified to date. Its name: patagotitan mayorum. After several years of study, the team of paleontologists officialized its name in 2017: the dinosaur weighed nearly 70 tons (the weight of 10 elephants), measured up to 37 meters and reached 8 meters at the withers. Its name is of course a tribute to the Patagonian region where it was discovered, but also a nod to the Mayo family, owners of the ranch, who welcomed the team of paleontologists during the excavations. For the moment, the reasons why these dinosaurs were so large are still poorly known, future work and studies will focus on new hypotheses on the evolution of the dinosaurs.
Thousand-year-old forests and petrified woods
In the Pampa, trees are rare, although Argentines have tried to import drought-resistant species such as eucalyptus, sycamore and acacia. Although the steppe has a miserable flora, it nevertheless bears witness to the past of life on Earth and the geological richness of the region. The petrified forests are particularly worth a look as they are rare and precious. A very interesting geological phenomenon, they bring back the least explosive past of the region: millions of years ago, during the Jurassic era and thus the era of the dinosaurs, giant trees 90 metres high populated the region. The Andes Cordillera had not yet formed and the winds from the Pacific Ocean brought abundant rainfall. In the Cretaceous era, the Andes Cordillera emerged from the bowels of the earth with winds of more than 300 km/hour. Trees were uprooted by violent storms and earth tremors, and volcanic eruptions spread their lava and ash. Buried alive, the trees sank into muddy soil where the ash mixed with minerals from the rain and the soil. Trapped in the earth, the trunks of the trees were crystallized by the silica that penetrated into each of their cells. The organic matter decomposed to make way for wood fossilized by the stone. Although they were swallowed up, they eventually came to the surface by wind and erosion. These petrified forests are found in the provinces of Santa Cruz, San Juan and La Rioja. Parque Nacional Monumento Natural Bosques Petrificados are the largest petrified trees in the world. In the steppes of Atlantic Patagonia, only grassy bushes(coirón) and some grasses resist the harsh climate. The most characteristic of the bushes is the calafate that gave its name to the city. Then, the higher you go, the more the relief changes. The coigüe(Nothofagus dombeyi) begins to appear as well as the lenga (Nothofaguspumilio), the roble (Nothofagusobliqua), a variety of oak, and the ñirre (Nothofagusantartica). Dominant species, Nothofagus is a kind of beech (it has been known since the 19th century that it is not identical to the Northern Hemisphere beech), whose other regions of settlement are New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia and New Guinea. On the Andean Cordillera side, in 'Green Patagonia' (which corresponds in particular to the regions north of Puerto Montt in Chile), the emblematic Araucaria pine (confined to an area stretching from the Antuco volcano to the Lanin volcano) frequents the cordilleran cypress (Librocedrus chilensis). In these so-called Valdivian forests, the climate is rainy (140 cm per year in Temuco, 175 cm in Puerto Montt, 245 cm in Valdivia), which makes the development of vegetation favourable. Amongst others, we find the mañio hembra(Podocarpus nubigenus), the mañio (Podocarpus salignus), the mañio macho(Saxegothaea nubigenus). On the other side of the Cordillera and at the same latitude, in Argentina, there are also magnificent forests of conifers (firs, cypresses, cedars,) and algae(Fitzroya cupressoides, abundant in the region of Puerto Montt in Chile and in the province of Chubut in Argentina), but especially the beautiful arrayanes, the only concentration of which in the world is found in the vicinity of Nahuel Huapi. They are said to have inspired the sets of Walt Disney's film "Bambi"). Some trees, such as the larch, are said to be more than 3,000 years old here! Some undergrowth is covered with strawberries, amankeys, copihue, Chile's national flower, or calafates. Resistant to cold summers and violent winds, the forests extend as far as the south where they are sometimes impenetrable, guardians of a flora that is still little known and studied. These sub-polar magellanic forests are reminiscent of fairy tales and the most bucolic fictions, they are said to be "primary", i.e. untouched and exploited by man. They include the coigüe, the Chiloé roble(Nothofagus nitida) and the Magallanes roble(Nothofagus betuloides), as well as the luma and the canelo.
A wild and endemic fauna
In all the high plateaus of the Argentinean pampas, the vegetation is miserable. However, certain animals have made it their preferred place of predilection like the guanaco, a camelid, wild cousin of the llama, which has become emblematic of the region. It eats little, and the diet of the southern grasses suits it well; a gregarious animal, it moves in groups of 5 to 20 individuals: most often it is either a male and his harem, or a group of young males (called chulengos) who, one day, will compete with the "chiefs of the tribes". Births take place in winter, with the female giving birth to only one calf, and gestation lasts 11 months. When spring arrives, after having suckled about trois mois, the young can finally feed themselves. The guanaco population in Patagonia was estimated to be around 7 million when settlers and sheep arrived; today there are no more than 600,000). In the pampas we also find the ñandú (Patagonian grey ostrich), the grey fox, rarely frightened by the presence of humans, the skunk, the mara (wrongly called Patagonian hare when it was imported by Europeans in the 20th century). The curious will witness the pleasant spectacle of the dwarf armadillos digging their burrows in the sand, but also tinamous scraping the ground, phrygiles. Ornithophiles will not fail to raise their heads to the sky to admire the chimango caracaras, crested caracaras, red-headed urubus, buffon harriers or colourful harriers. In the lagoons of the interior, reserves of an abundant avifauna, the black-necked swan sympathises with grebes and ducks, herons and egrets. Finally, on the Atlantic coast, the ballet of large marine mammals takes place towards the Valdes Peninsula: whales, sea lions (maned and fur seals), seals, lions and elephant seals, dolphins, killer whales... Among the latter, we find the Commerson's dolphin, a black and white cetacean, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful marine mammals. Thousands of Patagonian conures (Patagonian parakeets) nest in the cliffs of Punta Bermeja. The beaches resound with the cries and songs of seagulls, gulls, chionis, brassemers, skuas, petrels, terns... A superb spectacle, not to be missed. In Andean Patagonia, we find the smallest deer in the world. It can be distinguished in two species: the northern pudu and the southern pudu. The first one lives north of the Andes mountain range and has a dark orange-brown coat on its neck. The southern pudú lives in the dense forests of Chilean and Argentinean Patagonia, it can climb to high altitudes above 3,000 meters. Its coat provides additional protection from the cold and is entirely reddish brown. However, it remains inconspicuous and it is very difficult to cross them. The species has been classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, it has almost disappeared from Argentina due to excessive human hunting and deforestation. You may also have the privilege of seeing a huemul, or South Andean deer, an endangered species (you may come across one in El Chalten). In Tierra del Fuego, one may wonder how animals could have crossed the Strait of Magellan to reach this island; perhaps like the Onas, during an ice age, and when it can be assumed that the island was connected to the mainland by a thin cord of ice. Some animals, however, did not make the trip, such as the mara or the puma; others were introduced, such as the rabbit, the grey fox (zorro), the mink, the muskrat or the beaver; others are native or came from the mainland: the guanaco, the red fox, the otters, some species of rats. Today, a problem is posed by the large number of beavers who build dams to plant their lodges on the peaceful stretch of water thus obtained, flooding the surrounding forest and destroying precious native species. Sea lions and dolphins make up the bulk of the marine fauna, which is found rather along the canals of the South Fuegian. A very large number of trout have been introduced by man into the rivers. Cod, pollock, mullet, rock fish, squid or the centolla (spider crab or giant crab) have a great deal of fun out at sea. In Tierra del Fuego, 197 species of birds are represented. The most impressive specimens are of course the howler albatross and the Andean condor. But there are also pink flamingos, parakeets, owls, eagles, falcons, hawks, hawks, geese, hummingbirds, sparrows, ibis (its arrival heralds spring), kingfishers... Near the sea, oystercatchers, steam ducks (so called, perhaps, because they are too heavy to fly away and flap their wings on the surface of the water, evoking the wheels of steamboats), cormorants, terns, skuas, jaegers, chionis, Magellanic penguins, jumping gorfus... birds are swarming. The giant shearwaters, birds also very emblematic of Patagonia, do gliding contests with the black-browed albatross.
Animals declared a National Monument
Among all the biodiversity of the territory, there are mostly a few endemic animals, that is to say that they do not exist anywhere else on the planet! From birds to marine mammals and terrestrial animals, Patagonia is not short of surprises on earth as in the skies! From the Chilean fjords and the Argentinean Atlantic coast, it is possible to encounter a wide variety of marine mammals, including the emblematic whale: blue whale, humpback whale, right whale, fin whale, killer whale, sperm whale? Queen of the oceans, they are part of a protected fauna, and the right whale in particular is the subject of a special conservation programme: declared a Ballena FrancaAustral Natural Monument, it has been protected since 1984 in Argentina. This marine mammal is 12 or 13m long and can weigh between 30 and 40 tons when adult. Its head occupies about a quarter of its entire body! It can be observed in particular on the Valdes Peninsula where they come to give birth from August to October. Declared a National Monument in 1982, the Magellanic Penguin is not the most skilful on land, but underwater it is a virtuoso! He can reach 25 km/h in the middle of a race. Pairs are formed in September, and the eggs are laid a month later... then there are still some 40 days of incubation; thus, towards the end of January, the little penguins, weighing about 1 kg, begin their hard nomadic life. They are the prey of many animals, such as foxes or gulls. Only 10 % of the little penguins will reach the end of their first year. In February and March, the penguins lose their feathers and cannot go to sea, which causes them a big feeding problem; in fact, in April, when they put on new plumage, they are very thin. It is then time for the great migration to the open sea and hibernation. Among the privileged sites of observation, let us quote on the Chilean side the Pingüinera Seno Otway, close to Punta Arenas, and in Argentina the Isla Yécapasela, in the surroundings of Ushuaia, and the reserve of Punta Tumbo, in the south of Trelew. The largest colony is at the Monumento Natural Los Pingüinos, where 60,000 penguins live. In Argentina, two species of huemuls, a typical Andean deer, have been erected as national monuments to prevent their extinction. This small deer descends from the Andean highlands to the valleys in winter and rises again in summer. Its coat is brown, its eyes are bright, its ears are quite large. Hunted with impunity during the 20th century by humans or dogs, it is in danger of extinction worldwide. Today, several national parks are trying to ensure its survival, in particular Patagonia National Park and Pumalin National Park, created on the initiative of entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins. Generally speaking, all this work is beginning to bear fruit: extinct in several areas of Patagonia since the 1990s, the puma has made a great comeback and is making a name for itself alongside many other species now classified as a National Monument.
