The Guanaco - Three Things You Didn't Know

After the majestic Paine, it was on to the snowy Argentine boarder by 6 AM bus.

A reminder at the boarder, "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" regarding the dispute over Falkland islands.

I could see ostrich necks sticking up on hillside horizon and over the early morning sunrise. We then rejoined the Ruta 40 up toward El Calafate.

Ruta 40 was an infinite desert road, often as wide as an airport runway. We passed bushy-tailed skunks, mighty wild horses and many birds of pray.

The patagonian ostrich was by far the most amusing. What a strange animal this is run erratically with exaggerated clumsy steps. It looks like a giant bird that had it's arms (wings) removed. I can see why Darwin was so fascinated with this find.

We then crossed a never-ending plain of scrubland where we saw one of our first Guanacos. This cousin of the Llama and the Alpaca was a curious animal indeed. At first you wonder why it just sits there and stares at you approaching, without any concern. We then saw it could run almost as fast as a deer and clear tall fences with nearly as much grace and agility – not what I expected from what seemed like the strangest and most docile animal I've seen.

Darwin noted three more extremely odd characteristics about the Guanaco when he regularly came across large herds in Argentina:

1) They always go to the bathroom in the exact same place. "The guanacos have one singular habit, which is to me quite inexplicable; namely, that on successive days they drop their dung in the same defined heap. I saw one of these heaps which was eight feet in diameter, and was composed of a large quantity. This habit is very useful to the Peruvian Indians, who use the dung for fuel, and are thus saved the trouble of collecting it."

2) They drink saltwater. "The guanacos readily take to the water: several times at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island. Byron, in his voyage says he saw them drinking salt water. Some of our officers likewise saw a herd apparently drinking the briny fluid from a salina near Cape Blanco. I imagine in several parts of the country, if they do not drink salt water, they drink none at all."

3) They go to die near water. "The guanacos appear to have favourite spots for lying down to die. On the banks of the St. Cruz, in certain circumscribed spaces, which were generally bushy and all near the river, the ground was actually white with bones. On one such spot I counted between ten and twenty heads. I particularly examined the bones; they did not appear, as some scattered ones which I had seen, gnawed or broken, as if dragged together by beasts of prey. The animals in most cases must have crawled, before dying, beneath and amongst the bushes.