Chile Forum

The Puma of Chile and Argentina is one of the largest forms of Mountain Lion in the Americas. It is also one of the least aggressive and most secretive. The much smaller Vancouver Island cougar is the most aggressive and often several deaths a year are recorded up here, it is much smaller and has been fought off and often will not attack a full grown person so many of the deaths over the years are among children playing on the beach in rural areas like Tofino. The Vancouver Island form is undergoing a very controversial program where Cougars from the Sierras in California (very passive form, only several attacks on humans in 30 years) are being imported to interbreed, they feel the aggressiveness of the Vancouver Island form is genetic as it is displayed equally at hi and low cycles of the deer population. I have worked both in Patagonia and the west coast of Vancouver Island around Cougars, I would take the Patagonian ones any time, I seldom saw any. I thought they should use the Patagonian form for the mixing program but they probably couldn’t get enough and what if it went the other way and they got 120+kg aggressive forms, they might start attacking logging trucks!!!

GJJIM wrote:I was told that a cougar was poaching some of the herds near Cerro Tololo. The terrain there is a perfect habitat for these big cats.

There are certainly pumas up there -- my colleagues have seen them.

James.

Hello fellows.
Since this is the only topic about "dangerous" life form so far, I'd ask if there any poisonous snakes in Chile.

Moonzuk wrote:Hello fellows.
Since this is the only topic about "dangerous" life form so far, I'd ask if there any poisonous snakes in Chile.

EDIT -- see corrections in later post ( a snake or other animal would only be "poisonous" if you were to eat it and the body were poisonous so the discussion is about " venomous" snakes)

Moonzuk wrote:Hello fellows.
Since this is the only topic about "dangerous" life form so far, I'd ask if there any poisonous snakes in Chile.

No poisonous snakes... to my knowledge Chile is more or less snake free. According to what I found with Google there has been "one possible fatality" reported due to snake bite in Chile and from what little information I could find, it seemed like it was an extreme and rare reaction to the bite/venom where it would generally be non-fatal.

But they do have poisonous spiders.

j. Ro wrote:

Moonzuk wrote:Hello fellows.
Since this is the only topic about "dangerous" life form so far, I'd ask if there any poisonous snakes in Chile.

No poisonous snakes... to my knowledge Chile is more or less snake free. According to what I found with Google there has been "one possible fatality" reported due to snake bite in Chile and from what little information I could find, it seemed like it was an extreme and rare reaction to the bite/venom where it would generally be non-fatal.

But they do have poisonous spiders.

Correction to earlier statement about naturally occurring chilean snakes being "considered nonvenomous" -- should be restated as "all naturally occurring mainland Chilean snakes are technically venomous but considered not normally dangerous to humans." The issue is the location of the fangs and the probability of a bite involving injection of venom. In Chilean snakes the fangs are in the rear of the mouth (opisthoglyphous fangs), while those of the familiar vipers such as rattlesnakes (not native to Chile) have fangs in the front of the mouth. A bite from a rear-fanged Chilean snake on a human could involve injection of venom if a finger were bitten, perhaps less likely elsewhere.

Culebra Chilena de cola larga (Philodryas chamissonis; various subspecies including Philodryas elegans, Philodryas simonsii, Philodryas tachymenoides ) Philodryas chamissonis is sometimes called "long tailed green racer" which can be aggressive and grows up to 180 cm. Range for all subspecies from Atacama desert through Region VIII and possibly further south. - Proteolytic venom, essentially a digestive enzyme, includes anticoagulant that can lead to extended bleeding.

Culebra de cola corta: (Tachymenis chilensis) subspecies is Tachymenis chilensis coronellina. The venom of these includes a neurotoxin which can result in respiratory paralysis after a bite though reports of bites involving injection of venom are rare.

Also venomous sea snakes around Easter Island waters and beaches.

For good fotos of snakes of Chile = http://www.flickr.com/groups/1226905@N21/