Chile Forum

patagoniax wrote:
I am deathly afraid of catching leprosy from a giant armadillo.

Isn't everybody?
By the way, how do I acquire a pet puma?

chilco wrote: By the way, how do I acquire a pet puma?

It's quite simple. And perhaps no more offtopic than armadillo leprosy.
You come to the patagonia.
You dress up like a chulengo.
You find an occupied puma den.
You approach the occupied puma den while dressed as a chulengo, turn your back toward the den, and just wait until your new pet puma comes to you.

It usually doesn't take long. The local lions make takeout of about 60 percent of the chulengo crop each year.

You mean something like this? I kinda look like that already, minus all the fur, of course.
Are pumas common throughout Patagonia? I'd like to eventually have some goats, but not as puma-feed.

chilco wrote:Are pumas common throughout Patagonia? I'd like to eventually have some goats, but not as puma-feed.

Lions range the entire length of Chile, except Tierra del Fuego and the islands. The father of my neighbour was killed and eaten by one while he was fishing near Torres del Paine. The other neighbour is the local vet and was called to do the autopsy on the killer lion when it was taken down. Other neighbours found the skull of a lion in their garden. People not from around here like to believe they don't exist. There are lion tracks found occasionally in the slopes of Dorotea, near Puerto Natales.

Lots of foxes here as well, some quite capable of taking down goats. Very few goats in this region. I have seen Angora goats up in Sta Cruz province in Argentina.

foto by Simon Littlejohn

Yeah, I knew about the foxes. I took this guy's picture as he paced us in the car for about a half a mile along a road outside of Villa O'Higgins. Never heard about the pumas,though. Doesn't that make you a little leery, knowing your neighbor's father was eaten? Do they eat dogs as well? Or can the dogs handle them?
I saw a number of goats wandering about loose around La Junta; seemingly unattended.