Karukinka So Far

I've been working at a national preserve for the last couple of weeks, Karukinka, here in the south of Chile. I've come back to Punta Arenas (the city) for the weekend to get back in touch with the world. I head back out on Tuesday until March. Karukinka is incredible! It's located on the Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego, the island that forms the very southern tip of South America. The terrain is mostly grassland, stretching endlessly in all directions, but at some parts you get peat bogs, mountains and woods of Lenga trees. The weirdest part is how the grassland suddenly turns to forest; you can literally see a line separating the two environments. There is all kinds of wildlife too, TONS of guanacos, foxes, condors, magellanic woodpeckers, introduced beavers, birds... And the climate is really strange, it changes every minute, from rainy to suddenly sunny (producing rainbows), windy to EXTREME blow-you-over windy, really cold to lukewarm, etc. They say in this region that you can live all 4 seasons in one day.

I'm immersed in Chilean Spanish constantly since that's all everyone speaks. It's been a little tough at first making the switch back from English so abruptly, but I think now I'm sort of getting the hang of it. I've been helping out with a Guanaco census that takes place every year, monitoring populations in different habitats. We drive a pick-up truck along a given transect road, and stand up in the back to scout for Guanacos. It gets really cold sometimes because of the wind and rain so we have to wear lots of layers while working. Now I'm helping out with a project measuring plant groundcover near beaver dams to see how plants are being affected by the change in water level. Sort of tedious and less interesting work, but still. We get back in the late afternoon, around 6 or so. It stays light out until 10 though, so we don't immediately go to bed.

The beavers are really bad here, they were introduced to the south in Argentina and have spread quickly. Their damming poses a threat to the Lenga trees as they are slow growing and not very tolerant to changes in soil humidity (caused by beaver flooding). Just walking through the woods one often comes upon a huge open area filled with bleached white tree trunks, a dammed stream, and lots of debris. Amazing how such a little critter can be such an ecological disaster down here. They are going to be starting an eradication program soon, and one of the Guardaparques told us we would be eating beaver in the next month.