Argentina
- House Calls at the End of the World Video
- Wildlife veterinarian Marcela Uhart describes some of her patients on the coast of Argentina.
- ©WCS
- The Guanacos of Patagonia Video
- Conservationist, Andres Novaro studies the impacts of natural resource extraction and poaching on the Guanacos of Patagonia.
- ©WCS
- Tierra del Fuego Video
- Established in 2004 through a gift from the global investment bank Goldman Sachs, the Karukinka reserve in Tierra Del Fuego represents a major investment in the conservation of patagonia’s ecology and species.
- ©WCS
- Argentina Landscape Photo
- WCS is working to conserve a migration corridor for guanacos between the Payunia and Auca Mahuida reserves.
- Julie Larsen Maher©WCS
- Guanaco Photo
- Patagonia is the last stronghold for wild guanacos.
- Julie Larsen Maher©WCS
- Migration Tracking Photo
- Andres Novaro and Susan Walker tracking the migratory movements of radio-collared guanacos in the Payunia reserve on the Argentine steppe.
- Julie Larsen Maher©WCS
Most of the archetypical ecosystems of southern South America are represented in Argentina, from subtropical flatlands to prairies, arid plains, high mountains, and glaciers, each of which has been altered to varying degrees by human development. Patagonia, a series of windswept, volcanic plateaus characterized by open steppes and scrub forests, is home to a bizarre set of animals that includes armadillos, marsupials, burrowing parrots, and a large monogamous rodent called the “mara.” It also represents the last stronghold of the guanaco and Darwin’s rhea. Though haunting in its lonely grandeur, Patagonia’s ecology has been severely modified as a result of overgrazing by introduced sheep. Tierra del Fuego, at the continent’s southern tip, appears much as it did when Magellan sailed through. Its sprawling wilderness is unlike any other in the world, with large stands of old-growth southern beech forests, peat bogs, alpine meadows, river systems, fjords, and spectacular snow-capped mountains. Yet there, too, overfishing, oil production, and the introduction of non-native beaver have exacted an environmental toll.
Argentina encompasses some of the world’s wildest, most sparsely populated landscapes and one of the most dramatic, storm-tossed coastlines, at Tierra del Fuego. The country also claims one of the largest, most congested cities of South America, Buenos Aires (pop. 12.8 million). Argentina is an expansive, sometimes turbulent place, known for its gauchos and legendary shipwrecks as well as its pumas and penguins. Its diverse ecosystems include habitat for sea lions, ocelots, howler monkeys, crocodiles, guanacos, anteaters, vicuña, boa constrictors, and the extremely venomous yarará pit viper.
Fast Facts
- Some of the planet’s most unpredictable weather occurs in Tierra del Fuego, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet at the base of the Andes Mountains.
- More than 80 percent of the wild guanaco population worldwide lives in Argentina.
- Argentina is home to the largest flying bird in the New World—the Andean condor, as well as the smallest deer in the world, the pudu.
- Other notable birds include the Magellanic woodpecker, the austral parakeet, and the green-backed firecrown, a type of hummingbird.
- The indigenous people of southern Argentina, only a few of whom remain, living on the fjords of Southern Chile, were known for their extravagant, ritual body painting, which often mimicked native animals.
- The fertile Pampas grasslands, located north of Patagonia, are characterized by vast, remote ranches known as estancias, where cattle and sheep are raised.
- The Andes is the world’s most extensive high mountain system, stretching for 4,000 miles.
- Argentina’s Cerro Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet, is the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere.
- Argentina also claims the lowest point in South America, at Laguna del Carbón in Santa Cruz, 344 feet below sea level.
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Challenges
More than 95 percent of the land in Patagonia is privately owned, and only about one percent of Patagonia’s steppe and scrub ecosystems is currently under strict protection. Livestock grazing has resulted in severe desertification of approximately 30 percent of the landscape there, and sheep, cattle, and rabbits compete with native herbivores, and may transmit diseases to guanacos. There is a pressing need for assessing the effects of sheep grazing, exotic species, and hunting on Patagonian wildlife and habitats.
Due to their demographic characteristics and colonial habits, seabirds are highly vulnerable to human activities such as oil extraction and transport, fishing, and other disturbances. Little is known about the way natural and human-related factors affect breeding seabird populations, and despite the importance of seabird populations for marine systems and human economies, there is no national action plan for seabird conservation.
Introduced beaver have expanded rapidly in the absence of top predators, causing extensive damage to forests and altering natural water flows. Feral minks may be killing large numbers of native ground-nesting birds.
Along the coast, industrial-scale fishing, poorly planned development, and untreated sewage are changing marine and coastal ecosystems. At the same time, the use of wildlife as a tourist attraction is growing, without appropriate regulations.
WCS Responds
WCS has actively promoted the creation of parks and reserves in Argentina since the 1960s and has been instrumental in the establishment of many. We currently work to protect wildlife in the marine, steppe, and Andean environments of Patagonia. WCS continues to be instrumental in implementing the Patagonian Coastal Zone Management Plan, a program funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to protect coastal and marine wildlife and their habitats. To address conservation threats facing the regional marine environment, WCS is leading the Sea & Sky initiative, which seeks to protect a vast oceanscape in the Southwest Atlantic, an epicenter of biological productivity. In 2009, with support from WCS, Argentina declared a new coastal marine park to protect half a million penguins, cormorants, sea lions, and other coastal and marine wildlife.
On the Patagonian steppe, WCS is working with Argentine partners to preserve one of the continent’s most endangered natural phenomena, the overland migration of guanacos. WCS researchers are particularly interested in how guanacos adapt to seasonal changes in the landscape and how livestock grazing and other human impacts affect them. Their work will illuminate key factors that affect guanaco distribution, abundance, and social composition, as well as those that show migratory patterns. WCS is also working to improve protected areas for guanacos and to promote a migration corridor between the Payunia and Auca Mahuida reserves. Our conservationists collaborate with Patagonian ranchers so that wildlife can share private lands, and work with oil companies and local people to close abandoned oil trails that provide access to poachers.
From the Newsroom
Sante Fe is the first province in Argentina to take steps toward cutting allowable amounts of lead ammunition used for hunting. WCS commends the effort and hopes others will follow their lead against lead pollution.
WCS researchers in Argentina help keep populations of wild caiman healthy by checking their farm-raised counterparts for Salmonella infections and other diseases.
Featherless penguin chicks have been popping up on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the last few years. WCS researchers and their partners are unraveling the clues to this strange disorder.
A WCS survey finds an endangered Andean cat population living lower than ever,
down from the Andes Mountains and onto the Patagonian Steppe.
WCS partners with local groups to protect elephant seals, albatrosses, penguins, and other marine wildlife in Admiralty Sound, on an expedition to help safeguard this coastal region.
WCS scientists link rising temperatures and rainfall levels to a growing parasite problem for nestling birds in South America.
Researchers combine data from the sky and the sea to save a dolphin in need.
In Argentina, WCS has helped create a new marine park to protect the vulnerable rockhopper penguin—a funny-feathered bird known for its “Mohawk,” red eyes, and bright yellow spiky eyebrows.
South American howler monkeys sound the alert for humans during yellow fever outbreaks
A quarter-century of data reveals how changing weather patterns and land use, combined with overfishing and pollution, are taking a heavy toll on penguin numbers.
With support from WCS, Argentina declares a new coastal marine park to protect half a million penguins, cormorants, oystercatchers, and other rare seabirds.
Argentina bans commercial fishing in Burdwood Bank, a key marine wildlife area in the Patagonian ecosystem that is home to albatross, penguins, whales, and seals, among other species.