(gentle instrumental music)
We've all heard that same old phrase before,
that Chile is a long and narrow strip of land.
(waves crashing)
While the truth?
Chile is a long and narrow strip of life.
She's Susannah, and English oceanographer.
She arrived 10 years ago
to study the songs of Chilean whales.
And he's Rene, my friend,
the first Chilean professional safari guide in Africa.
(singing)
(animal growling)
We want to have close encounters with animals
in a responsible and respectful way.
And record everything.
This is Chile, a wild country.
And this is our journey.
(gentle instrumental music)
This adventure begins in the Chilean Patagonia,
a natural paradise located at the end of the world
at the southernmost end of America.
This is the right destination
to enjoy amazing landscapes,
but also to understand how a healthy environment
works up close.
We're looking
for close encounters with animals,
particularly with one of the great felines of America,
a species that has learned to survive
from Alaska all the way down to Patagonia,
the puma, the king of the mountain,
and here, the king of Patagonia.
(birds chirping)
(gentle instrumental music)
Before experiencing
any close encounters with pumas,
we must really understand the functioning
of the Patagonian ecosystem,
and the best way to do it
is by observing the relationship among the species
that form part of it.
(snow crunching)
There is a healthy population of guanacos here
in Torres del Paine National Park.
However, access can sometimes be negative,
and guanacos in large numbers uncontrolled,
devouring grass, flowers, and even small trees,
can cause severe damage to the ecosystem.
Guanacos are very resilient
and adaptable animals,
and they need a natural control of population
like the puma.
Thanks to this cat,
formidable scavenger animals, like the Andean condor,
are able to find food.
The condor is designed to fulfill the ecological role
of a vacuum cleaner.
Depending on its sight rather than sense of smell,
a condor can find the food left by a puma from the sky,
but where is the big kitty?
(gentle instrumental music)
The kitty is asleep.
Because of its nocturnal habits,
it's the perfect opportunity for scavengers
to steal some food.
(birds chittering)
Carefully, the scavengers come to the feast.
Little by little, raptors,
as well as other opportunistic mammals,
start appearing.
They take turns stealing and feasting,
thanks to the sleeping kitty's work.
They must be cautious, though.
The puma can come back any minute now,
and that would be fatal for everyone involved.
(birds chirping)
This is a healthy food chain,
from the puma all the way down to the flies
that lay eggs.
Thanks, predator.
(gentle instrumental music)
So now we know that guanacos
are puma's main prey here in Patagonia.
These South American camelids are aware
of the danger they are exposed to in this place.
That's why they have developed an alarm call
that warns the other guanacos,
and all the other animals as well, including us.
(animal chittering)
This is one of our strategies to look for the great cat.
(speaking in a foreign language)
There is a condor up there
and a group of guanacos down there,
and they are our main helpers in the mission
of looking for pumas.
We have a network of observers here.
And we don't pay them.
It's fee.
Free.
Guanacos are our terrestrial guides,
since a slight mistake could turn them
into a puma's next meal,
but watch out because we also have some aerial assistance.
Condor's help us find a dead guanaco
hunted by a puma.
They are constantly watching from the air,
looking for a dead guanaco,
and when they do, they go down to it.
We have to look for those condors,
and down here, there are guanacos,
usually in large numbers,
but sometimes alone.
Guanacos will alert us where there is a puma
because they can see it.
They have much better vision than us.
(dramatic instrumental music)
Have you noticed how they move their jaws?
Chewing, grinding grass.
(mumbling)
(grass chewing)
They possess herbivores' classic adaptations.
They have a long neck,
which helps them graze for long periods of time,
and they can also raise their heads really high,
which is good for spotting predators,
(speaking in a foreign language)
so they spend their time constantly grazing,
and with their long necks,
raising their heads, watching.
(speaking in a foreign language)
They also have eyes on the sides of their head
because it helps them see if there's a puma around,
(speaking in a foreign language)
and in a way, they use those long ears like antennas
to detect distant sounds from predators.
The point is that you wouldn't like
to be a guanaco out here.
Guanacos live under constant stress
because they know there's an animal
that could hunt them at any time.
Yes, enormous stress.
Oh, they must look around all the time,
and they're always worried.
Every night could be their last.
Every day can be their last day.
(laughing)
They must have seen many atrocities committed
against their brothers.
Against a fellow guanaco.
They've seen a puma going straight to the throat
of another fellow guanaco firsthand,
so they have every right to be scared.
Yes, absolutely.
For that reason, guanacos prefer open
and exposed areas so they can detect pumas
and keep their distance.
Full alertness and awareness of predators
in open areas is a strategy used by many species,
and not necessarily just mammals.
Sometimes it's best to be exposed than hidden,
especially when you can count with many sets of eyes
watching over the perimeter.
There's a salt flat down here
full of flamingos, James's flamingos,
the smallest of all of the species of flamingos.
They are not so little, either.
No.
No, they're large animals.
I think that's our goal, to get there.
We traveled from Patagonia
straight to the northern part of Chile,
4,000 meters above sea level,
to understand a basic aspect of animal behavior,
safety when facing predators and other potential threats.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Getting this close to the flamingos is unusual.
They are shy.
When someone gets out of the car to take pictures,
what happens is they leave,
but since we came in very slowly
and kept a (mumbling) distance,
none flew away.
They are not scared or worried at all.
They are all eating.
They are feeding.
These animals are very social.
One of the reasons why they're always
inside of a group is to protect themselves
from predators.
(speaking in a foreign language)
As you can see,
this environment is also very exposed.
They can be seen by any predator.
It's not like living inside a forest.
Here they're out in the open,
(gentle instrumental music)
and when night comes,
things can get a little complicated for the flamingos.
Temperatures drop drastically,
freezing the water where the flamingos rest,
thus trapping them in the ice until dawn.
So nighttime become the perfect opportunity
for predators, such as the fox, to wreak some havoc.
Just by detecting the presence of a fox,
flamingos will fly away immediately.
However, the same water that provides them with food
can also turn into a death trap.
(birds chittering)
Most of the time,
they have to wait for the sun's first rays
to melt the ice at the crack of dawn.
Danger is present at all times.
(air rushing)
Flamingos can always fly away
as their last resort to escape danger,
but in the very salt flats where flamingos live,
we can find a small creature unable to fly away and escape.
He is much more worried about others
from its own species than about foxes,
humans, or any other potential danger.
(speaking in foreign language)
We're in Atacama Salt Flat,
a tourist area.
Many people travel here every day
to see the flamingos.
About 2,000 people per week,
a lot of people.
Rene is now obsessed
with seeing another creature.
I don't think we'll see it though.
Why not?
Because it's so small.
I can't believe with all these
pretty big flamingos around,
you're obsessed with seeing a lizard.
Liolaemus fabiani.
I won't say anything else, Susannah.
Let's look and see
right at the edge of the salt flat.
Alright.
Over here too.
Right here where we are standing
we find our friend the lizard.
Fabian's lizard.
I won't say anything else
because you're going to like it.
Alright.
(gentle instrumental music)
(wind blowing)
Chile's biodiversity is varied
and full of endemic species,
species that only live in this land
at the end of the world,
and which sometimes live near human settlements.
(speaking in a foreign language)
These lizards need to fight for territory,
food, and females.
Males are the ones that usually engage
in very ferocious fights
where they can lose their tail or even get killed.
The sun starts to rise.
The place starts to warm up.
All the bugs these lizards feed upon
begin to come out,
and that's where territoriality appears, like here.
These are probably two males.
Oh, they are sizing each other,
and they are seeing who's bigger or smaller.
They are thinking.
It's a previous part of analysis.
They're checking out each other,
and it doesn't always end in a fight.
Sometimes they just go away.
Most of the time,
animals avoid conflict because of the high costs.
Changes in body temperature,
the risk of getting exhausted, no food,
life itself is at stake when they fight.
(dramatic instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
It has such beautiful colors,
and they have like a bad guy face.
Like a mini-Godzilla.
Where did it go?
Down here.
They want to eat.
All these rock formations are made of salt.
That's another characteristic of these lizards' habitat.
It lives in the salt flats.
It's adapted to eat only specific kind of flies
associated with salt, I imagine.
(speaking in a foreign language)
There it goes.
One is approaching.
It's coming from behind.
The animal's behavior indicates what is happening.
They tend to stand up on salt rocks.
They get positioned in order to get
a better sight of its surroundings
because they're at higher altitude.
They're marking the territory
to tell those around, "Don't get close.
"Don't bother me."
Then whomever approaches may suffer
some terrible consequences.
Are they fighting?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Really, fight?
Where are the binoculars?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Look, they're getting closer.
The other one is running away.
It's running away.
(mumbling)
All this fight was recorded in high speed
or slow motion.
Therefore, the fight between these two little fighters
is quicker and more violent.
It's an even fight, so far,
here in the ring of salt.
(dramatic instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
Oh, it beat that one up.
Oh, again.
(speaking in a foreign language)
We are very entertained
seeing how these lizards fight.
(gentle instrumental music)
This is one of the most exciting moments of my life.
I had always wanted to see Liolaemus fabiani
fighting for females or flies.
Is it possible you might
shed a tear over this?
It's too hot.
It wouldn't be very smart
to start losing mineral salts.
(speaking in a foreign language)
(wind blowing)
Sometimes claws are shown,
and some other times feathers fly off,
but in order to see birds ready to do anything,
we're still in Chile's Andean Highlands in the North,
but this time away from the salt flats.
Now we want to explore the wetlands
where life concentrates around smaller groups
with vegetation.
(speaking in a foreign language)
This is a wetland.
Finally we are in a wetland
about 4,000 meters high,
and despite being surrounded by a very dry area.
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's full of water here,
so animals flock to take advantage of it,
especially in this environment
and this landscape that's so dry.
Look at the beautiful colors.
Everything is beautiful here.
(bird calling)
This landscape is home to a unique species of bird,
the largest coot in Chile,
and the second largest in the world,
and one of the fiercest as well.
(speaking in a foreign language)
All these black birds are giant coots.
They go in pairs,
and we can see their nests from here.
(upbeat instrumental music)
And there he goes.
And here it comes with some grass.
It uses that grass to repair the nest.
They need maintenance.
They are maintaining the nest.
(birds chittering)
Both contribute in maintenance of the nest.
They look like a cooperative couple, right?
As it should be.
A modern couple.
A modern couple, the basics.
(gentle instrumental music)
(water splashing)
(speaking in a foreign language)
Impressive.
The coot goes all day picking grass
or fighting with others.
(speaking in a foreign language)
And like other animals we've seen,
some fight over females.
Some fight over food.
Fights over females are between male, male.
Fights over territory can be between males or females,
but here, there are both of them.
It's the male or the female
that are near the nest,
and since there are others building their nests,
then they are constantly protecting it
and taking turns,
and they are aggressive with other animals.
I mean, they attack the vicunas.
You have to be brave
to attack the vicunas.
They're brave.
They are super brave.
(dramatic instrumental music)
It's like taken out of a horror movie,
and with claws almost bigger than a puma's,
the giant coots gain respect.
(water splashing)
These birds patrol their nests,
scare other animals, attack possible threats,
and if they have to fight, they fight.
(birds squawking)
(water splashing)
They use a very peculiar technique
for throwing sharp cuts.
The central fight stirs the spirits of the spectators,
and the Andean geese, most of them young males
that showed a calm behavior until recently,
get influenced by the giant coot's bad behavior
and get involved in a new feud,
turning this wetland into a real battlefield.
(air rushing)
(dramatic instrumental music)
(water splashing)
These open field fights
are nature at its wildest,
full of hormones and constant proof of who's boss.
Anything goes when it comes to better access
to food and chances to mate.
(gentle instrumental music)
We come back to Patagonia.
Our mission is to find pumas.
Diurnal animals begin their day together
at the first rays of the sun.
On the other hand, for others,
this is a time to seek refuge and rest.
Pumas are active mostly during dawn and dusk,
so in order to find them,
we must follow the signs they leave us in nature.
(grass crunching)
We can do this only because we have special permits
from the park rangers,
allowing us to continue our activities off road.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Stool samples.
Because of their size,
we immediately know that this is a puma.
It's really normal.
Also, no other animal would have such a big bone
in its poop.
From the carnage we've seen,
one thing we know about pumas
is that they also eat bits of bone.
They chew the ribs and eat the bones.
(bone crunching)
There's no better sign than something like this
because it's really fresh.
It's still wet.
These rocks are a ideal habitat for a puma
in the day to rest.
The same as the rocks are below in (mumbling),
all these rocks form cracks.
That gives the puma protection.
If they want, they go out to sunbathe.
If they want to protect themselves
from the rain or whatever,
they get inside.
(speaking in a foreign language)
They're also strategic vantage points
where pumas can easily see all around them.
They use these rocks for that purpose.
Now, let's go look for pumas
and leave the poop on the ground
where it should stay.
(gentle instrumental music)
Most likely, they're seeing us now.
If they are here, they see us.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Yeah, you're probably right.
Here we're looking for them,
and they're probably been watching us this whole time.
Pumas always detect us from afar,
and even though we can't see them,
we know that they're around us.
(animal calling)
Did you hear?
Sue, did you hear that?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Yes, there's a guanaco
making an alert call.
Over there.
That call is because of a puma, 100% sure,
so when we hear an alarm call,
it's best to start looking with the binos.
We must spot that guanaco.
Once we spot it,
we have to see where is it looking at.
It keeps on screaming.
(animal calling)
There's the cat.
Where?
Over there.
Oh, it's really far.
He's walking.
He's far away.
It's about a mile away at least.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Yes, it's far away,
and it's getting further away,
but the way it moves is unmistakable.
One just came down from that hill.
There are two of them.
There are two pumas.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Three pumas.
(speaking in a foreign language)
There's a fourth one.
There are two young ones.
I think they're cubs.
Sue says there are four pumas now.
Let me see.
I'll tell you immediately.
Give me the binos please?
(speaking in a foreign language)
You can even see them with your naked eyes too.
See that hill?
I see.
Yeah, I see like a spot.
Yeah, they are all together.
There are the cubs.
There they are.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Yes, they're all together.
My first sighting, yes,
my very first one.
Still excited, we'll try to get a closer look
at this family's natural behavior
without getting in their way.
But before watching this cat family up close,
we travel to the skirts of a volcano
located in the south central area of Chile,
an area of lakes and mountains,
and when it comes to families,
here we can find an animal species very different
to the pumas,
a unique reptile that only exists here.
In this peculiar and rocky place,
we are interested in learning about its social dynamics,
but its colors capture all of our attention.
Here we have
the (speaking in a foreign language),
a new species of Iguanian lizard.
Do you see another one there?
(speaking in a foreign language)
There's one here too.
How was it?
Pretty big,
but I think it's a--
It's a female.
Sure, because it doesn't have that green.
It's much darker.
(speaking in a foreign language)
There are others with a phosphorescent green.
Because of its quite large size and the coloring
that is not so dark,
this should be a male.
(gentle instrumental music)
The color of that skinny one is really pretty.
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's perfectly camouflaged.
The black parts are similar to those rocks,
and the fluorescent green spots
look like lichens.
So would you say I'm dressed accordingly
to the situation?
I'm wearing green with gray, lichen Rene?
Yes, but--
This is where I fail.
Mr. White.
Camouflage yourself in order to survive.
Adapt to your surroundings
in order to take advantage and continue your species.
(gentle instrumental music)
Lizards, iguanas, and snakes are reptiles,
and they have cold blood,
so when the sun rises,
it's really important for them,
especially in the morning,
with the first rays of light.
When it's all frozen,
they have to go out to sunbathe,
but they can't stay in the sun for a long time,
or else, they won't be able to control their temperature.
They would get too hot.
That's why they need a place
where they can take refuge, shade.
Do you notice that they have a secret body,
and that their heads are smaller?
Very small.
They're a little bit fat.
(speaking in a foreign language)
That might be related to the substrate
where they live.
It's a place where temperatures are very extreme.
Not too much now because it's summer.
During the day it's hot.
Nights are very cold,
and perhaps by having more surface,
they can get more temperature
because when the sun hits a substrate,
they can come out.
Given that their body's larger,
they have a larger surface to heat.
(speaking in a foreign language)
I mean, what do they do in winter?
Hibernating, probably.
Hibernating, of course.
Because they won't be sunbathing during winter.
It's full of snow.
Beyond their colors or ability
to endure winter in this volcanic habitat,
we want to see their social behavior,
something rarely seen in reptiles.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Another interesting fact is that they live in colonies
with relatives.
A colony, a community?
Yeah, they live in groups.
It's like a condo.
(speaking in a foreign language)
This social structure of colonies
seems interesting.
What are the dynamics behind that?
Protection, probably.
They are exposed to danger, right?
For example, one goes out,
and the rest follows him.
If a few of them hide,
the rest will hide too.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Generally, reptiles don't make much difference
between being related,
so sometimes, in many species,
they eat each other.
They eat whatever smaller creature they can find.
It's interesting to observe
these unusual family dynamics in reptiles.
There are obvious tolerances
between different individuals.
However, going back to the pumas in Patagonia,
social dynamics in mammals are much more complex,
and for that reason,
we'll try to observe them,
aided by these useful instruments.
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's 2:00 P.M.
In about three hours,
the sun will go down.
We finally found a kill,
not in the best position though.
The cars pass right here,
and the kill is right down there
by those bushes.
Here is the meat.
(speaking in a foreign language)
We want to record when the pumas
are feeding from up close.
Obviously we can't get near
and bother the pumas,
and also because we don't want
to become their food.
A very simple and effective technique
in terrestrial biology is the video camera trap.
Maybe you don't know,
but Christian worked for 10 years in research,
so he has experience with this type of camera.
Right?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Our opportunity is finding the puma
that ate here a couple of hours ago.
This puma will probably come back
because there's still meat.
We'll use the camera trap
in case it appears when we are not here.
We know drones are prohibited
in Torres del Paine,
but we'll use our drone a new way.
Here is our drone.
(speaking in a foreign language)
But it won't take off.
This drone is gonna stay right there.
It looks like a spaceship
from The Empire Strikes Back.
The drone allows us to remotely operate the video camera.
However, we need light to record,
so we leave our equipment installed,
and we are off to do
what we do almost every day,
wait at a safe distance.
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's good.
We've never done this before.
It's a different approach.
(speaking in a foreign language)
I loved this idea.
(upbeat instrumental music)
The camera trap, unlike the drone,
is a better tool.
We can leave it here for days,
and every time something moves in front of it,
day or night, it starts recording
without making a sound
or turning any annoying light on,
and it records everything,
absolutely everything and everyone.
(gentle instrumental music)
And so, once again we wait.
The cameras wait for the puma
as long as it decides to return,
which often happens after the sun goes down
and we are long gone.
These are the subtleties of our work.
Filming wild animals in their habitats
is a wonderful but difficult job.
It requires times, days,
patience, and a lot of walking and waiting.
We get cold, hot, hungry.
We must stay united,
always optimistic, and feel grateful
to do what we do.
We are a team.
We work as a team,
but we are also a group of friends.
Can you see anything, Toco?
(speaking in a foreign language)
I hope we get lucky now.
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's time to use 4K vision.
Are you scared?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Me?
All the time.
Really?
I'm afraid of failure.
Fortunately, the video camera trap
works day and night while we rest.
(gentle instrumental music)
One puma,
two pumas, three cats.
(cats chewing)
Four cats.
Finding these groups feeding together is not odd.
Usually, they are formed by a mother and its cubs
that come back to feed on animals
that the mother hunted.
This food can last for days.
However, there's always a chance
that other pumas may appear,
and that could be dangerous for the cubs.
There is a huge male that has been feeding
on the mother's prey.
The female observes.
She's careful,
and so are the cubs.
To fight against a male can be deadly.
The next move comes from the huge cat.
Big male cats could kill cubs
only to keep a female in heat
and to be able to mate with her,
unless this male is in its territory,
so he is the dominant male of the area,
and cubs must be its children.
(animal calling)
Now without any danger,
small cats can feed.
(gentle instrumental music)
Their mother is always vigilant,
and their father, who is mostly absent
and doesn't interact with the puppies,
at least won't hurt them.
Hopefully one day these cubs
can grow safe and become as successful and healthy
as their parents.
Talking about parental behavior
and care to oversee offspring,
there is an animal in Chile
which is an amazing example of care and protection,
and it lives in this wet, cold rainforest.
We are looking for a very small animal
that lives surrounded by other creatures
that evolve and have adopted a common strategy.
The lives of many have become small,
reducing their physical size to survive
in a dense, humid, and cold forest,
full of vegetation, trees, and mosses,
a place full of resources and biodiversity.
We are looking for a small amphibian
not bigger than the size of a thumb.
(birds chirping)
However, before our encounter
with the small amphibian,
it's worth meeting some other animals,
like the pudu, the smallest deer in the world,
only 30 centimeters high.
These small animals of the forest
find refuge in food inside the dense vegetation.
Because of their size, they are timid,
and in order to avoid predators,
they must always be cautious.
Have you heard about the smallest cat
in the American continent?
(gentle instrumental music)
It's the elusive kodkod,
one of the five native cats
of Chile's territory.
A solitary and nocturnal animal
that benefits from the micro-world it inhabits,
feeding on birds, little mice,
or anything smaller than him.
Animals like this are always around,
and very few people are lucky enough to see them.
Each encounter with a cat like this
is usually brief.
They are masters of camouflage.
Okay, we are here in the humid forest
of southern Chile looking for one
of the country's most famous amphibians
and possibly the world's,
Darwin's frog,
and soon, we'll be able to observe
its unique and special parenting techniques.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Here, we see a lot of Darwin frog sightings.
Each little flag is a sighting.
I like these trunks with all this moss, ferns.
There are plenty of sightings in those areas,
and there are little flags.
Here it's full.
Here too.
A lot of blah blah and no frog.
(speaking in a foreign language)
He's wearing a head torch.
You can see better with this on, right?
Yes, clearly.
And with this too
with the special vision.
They are made to look for amphibians
less than (mumbling).
I guess in real life (mumbling).
It's just for the look.
No, I don't need them in real life.
It's for the attitude.
Yes, to have the attitude of looking for them.
To look smarter, right?
(speaking in a foreign language)
Oh, there it is.
It's so cute.
He has the color of a gorilla.
Yes, exactly.
It's like--
Like the army jackets.
(speaking in a foreign language)
What are you saying, my love?
No, it can't be so cute.
It just climbed into my hand.
Reach out to the side.
This is our first Darwin frog in Chile.
There are many questions about its behavior, size,
but most importantly, its vocalizations,
which is what Jose is saying here with Jaime.
Let's hear it right here where we find it
because they move very little too.
This place is a specific spot
where scientists from Tantauco Park
are conducting several research projects
on these tiny frogs.
Understanding animal species the best way possible
is key to elaborate conservation strategies.
In fact, Jose came from Mexico to study
the vocalization of some of these frogs,
to understand their way of communicating a little better.
(speaking in a foreign language)
(upbeat instrumental music)
These little frogs, perfectly camouflaged
with their color and leaf shape,
move very little.
They live in small territories,
which Jose managed to identify with different individuals.
For that reason, apart from recording their songs,
it is necessary to take DNA samples,
measure weight, and photograph the frogs,
aiming to collect more data
to help identify and understand their behavior
and interaction.
(gentle instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
We must also emphasize
that all this is being done by Jose
because he's conducting research.
His PhD.
It will ultimately help
the conservation of this animal.
(speaking in a foreign language)
You have a special permit for this research,
and you follow all the protocol
and have the knowledge to do it
so as not to harm them in any way.
Don't worry.
This little frog is not dead.
They have a great defense system called thanatosis,
which is basically playing dead.
Many animals do it,
which makes it easy for us to take their pictures.
(speaking in a foreign language)
They don't release them randomly anywhere.
They move very little,
so we can't place them 10 meters away.
(speaking in a foreign language)
There it is.
It's happy, but the most surprising
and famous evolutionary adaptation of this frog
is found inside the male,
who is responsible for the lives of its young ones
as they grow up inside his mouth.
Here is the guttural sack of this little frog.
It's taking care of the tadpoles
inside this guttural sack.
These parents are called pregnant males
and are unique in the world.
This is the characteristic
that makes this frog so famous.
This is the most special thing
this little frog has.
(speaking in a foreign language)
And it's more dangerous too.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Are you excited?
You can't see it,
but there is a tear running down his cheek.
He just has a tough face.
(bird chirping)
(gentle instrumental music)
In the animal world, generally,
it's the males who fight for territory and resources,
but here, in the middle of the Patagonian calm,
there are females willing to take their claws out
to defend their own.
Territory is access to resources,
and in a place as healthy as Torres del Paine,
some territories of female pumas
can overlap with the territory of a neighbor.
This young female is innocently walking
in a foreign territory,
and the dominant female of the place, hidden
is staring at the known intruder.
(bird squawking)
(speaking in a foreign language)
She just got up.
Then the dominant female
goes after the intruder.
It's marking territory.
Do you see what she did with its legs?
Yes.
Bad idea.
The young puma begins scent marking
with her urine and hind legs.
She's not bothered about us.
She's still watching the other puma.
Then she moves around,
marking the territory with the other animal just past.
(wind blowing)
(gentle instrumental music)
That's how this big female
can follow the trail of a young female puma.
Apparently, she has cubs,
an extra motivation to defend her territory
from an intruder.
(speaking in a foreign language)
She still has the kill there.
At some point, she will go back to feed again,
but for the moment,
she's more concerned about the second puma that arrived.
The chase continues,
and the young puma is being pushed
beyond what normally happens in these situations.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Fight, fight club, fight.
Fight, fight, fight, fight.
They scared each other away.
Yes, they did.
In other words, leave my territory.
Yup, get away.
Her last resource,
hiding.
(animal calling)
(dramatic instrumental music)
The chase begins.
The signals given by the young female puma
show us its fear.
The fight is not imminent.
The young puma is being escorted without resistance.
This clearly indicates who is in charge of this territory.
(animal calling)
The young puma is subdued.
The dominant female is bigger and stronger
and probably more experienced.
There is no going back.
The young female puma must leave quickly,
or things could get ugly,
(pumas growling)
very ugly.
I have never seen how they chase each other out.
One scared the other one away,
and she chased the other puma
until she expelled her.
Considering that she still has food,
considering further that she's either pregnant
or has cubs as well,
that's why she's nervous.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Yeah, right.
These animals are always going to avoid
violent contact because that implies--
Danger.
(speaking in a foreign language)
Most likely fatal.
They prefer to chase each other out
before fighting directly.
They are smart.
Animals in general try to avoid fights.
Fights come when there is no other solution,
and that's when they take their claws out, literally.
What's up, (mumbling)?
(gentle instrumental music)
We still haven't seen the puma's predator nature,
(animal calling)
and here in Patagonia,
we only have to wait patiently
to find moments like this.
This fence is the limit
between Torres del Paine National Park
and a private ranch.
Unfortunately, younger guanacos suffer enough
from learning how to jump
from one side to the other,
and pumas know it.
They have learned to hunt near this fence
because clearly it slows down the prey.
Guanacos even get caught in the barbed wire sometimes.
However, in order to hunt efficiently,
the puma must stalk its prey
from less than 15 or 10 meters.
They are cats, and they have low levels of stamina.
They can't chase a prey for too long.
They get easily exhausted,
and the guanacos know it.
As long as they keep a prudent distance,
they are safe,
the eternal cat and mouse game.
(speaking in a foreign language)
This is very common for the pumas
of Torres del Paine.
They usually move along this fence from gate to gate.
The path it's using is the one the tourists use.
This indicates once again that pumas are around.
They move where people are.
People must understand they aren't dangerous.
They live here, and they've never been interested in us.
(speaking in a foreign language)
They've never been interested in people,
but sometimes, they can interact.
A puma can approach a person.
All people must know that pumas
don't see us as food or as a threat
as long as people respect them,
but there is one golden rule though.
Do not run, never.
Never turn your back on an animal like this
because you immediately become a prey.
(animal calling)
(speaking in a foreign language)
A guanaco right there saw it,
so pumas have to patrol their territory.
It's a time when movement starts,
as we've seen with all of these pumas.
At 5:00 P.M., they start moving.
(animal calling)
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's in hunting mode.
We lost sight of it.
It passed behind this hill.
(gentle instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
I think tonight many guanacos
will not be able to sleep in this area.
(speaking in a foreign language)
That's true.
(dramatic instrumental music)
Hunting guanacos isn't that easy.
It requires patience, strategy,
math skills, and experience,
and this puma attacked too early.
(animal calling)
Now, everyone knows that there is a predator hunting.
We still have something pending.
We found some three month old cubs,
and the best part of our journey
was yet to come.
(animal calling)
(gentle instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
There's the cat.
Where?
There.
Can you see the hill that's--
Oh, I see it.
Yeah, I see like a spot.
Yes, they're all together.
Yeah, they're all together.
There are the cubs.
There they are.
I saw the puppies.
(speaking in a foreign language)
(electronic beeping)
(speaking in a foreign language)
(electronic beeping)
(wind blowing)
(speaking in a foreign language)
It's not just one puma,
but a female with puppies,
an opportunity we can't miss.
We don't want to scare them.
We just want to record them.
I hope we do well.
(gentle instrumental music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
That's the female,
with her three kittens.
They are together.
Luckily we found them.
(gentle instrumental music)
This is the best gift that Torres del Paine can offer.
We want to keep our distance
without disturbing this family,
watching, enjoying, and feeling grateful.
These animals suffer every day to survive.
Being part of wildlife is a constant challenge.
However, the biggest threat are humans.
Hopefully, these predators will never be seen
as enemies again.
(speaking in a foreign language)
The close up images that we're about to see
are the same ones that you will see.
That is, we won't see any closer
than what Christian records.
Hopefully, there will never again be cases
of orphaned cubs.
Hopefully, these images will remind us
that animals aren't very different from us.
This is what we came to look for,
and words now are really unnecessary.
(gentle instrumental music)