Thinking of embarking on a Patagonia puma quest? Then you’ve come to the right place. This guide gives you the know-how to maximise your chances of spotting a puma in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
There are few experiences in the world as humbling and electrifying as locking eyes with a wild puma. In Torres del Paine National Park, deep in Chilean Patagonia, that moment becomes more than just a wildlife sighting — it becomes a soul-stirring encounter in a land ruled by wind, silence, and snow-capped peaks. I came to this remote corner of the world in search of the Patagonia puma, and I found her.
Patagonia pumas are magnificent. I visited Torres del Paine as part of my quest to see all 40 species of wild cats in their natural habitat. I have seen pumas in Costa Rica. But while that encounter was precious, it was unpredictable and brief. In Patagonia, if you are lucky, you can watch pumas go about their day, learn about the particular individual pumas, since their histories and relations are known to the guides, and have extraordinarily close encounters with these remarkable cats.
Let me take you through my three days of tracking Patagonia pumas in Torres del Paine — the pumas I met, what it was like, and how you can do it too.
Why Torres del Paine is the Best Place to See Patagonia Pumas
Torres del Paine is one of the few places on Earth where you have a real chance of seeing wild pumas in their natural habitat. Why Torres del Paine? Here’s the story.
There have always been pumas in Torres del Paine, but they were ghosts — rarely seen and deeply feared. Historically, this land has been sheep ranching country. The town of Puerto Natales was established because a small port was needed to ship wool and meat from the ranches.
The ranchers, of course, knew that pumas were living among them, since their sheep often fell prey to the large cats. For the ranchers, the only good puma was a dead one. So they shot them at every opportunity, even after the government gave pumas legal protection in the 80s.
In 1990, a fisherman was killed in what would be the last recorded puma attack in the area. In response, park rangers began shooting rubber bullets at pumas to keep them away from people and drive them out of the park. However, as biologists began to arrive to study the cats, attitudes started to shift. The park stopped using deterrents, and over time, sightings became more frequent.
Then, around 2005, two young female pumas, Mocha and Sarmiento, began appearing regularly near the eastern edge of the park. Unlike most wild cats, they weren’t afraid of people. They lingered near roads and allowed themselves to be photographed.
These two cats became local celebrities and the matriarchs of many of the pumas seen today. They seem to have passed their tolerance of humans to their descendants, and with it, a new form of tourism was born. Puma watching in Torres del Paine started not with tour companies, but with two unusually relaxed cats who changed everything.
Over the past two decades, conservation efforts and ecotourism have created a unique situation: a stable, visible population of pumas that are increasingly habituated to human presence, especially along the park’s eastern edge.
Ranchers switched to raising cattle, a much harder prey for a puma to tackle, while those living near the park began offering puma-watching tours. With a steady stream of international visitors coming to see the cats, pumas not only became worth more alive than dead — they also emerged as a symbol of national pride for the Chilean people.
My 3-Day Experience Watching Pumas in Torres del Paine
I visited Torres del Paine in May, just as winter was beginning to settle across the steppe. I had booked a three-day Torres del Paine puma tour with Fabian of Fauna Silvestrek, a personable and observant guide with encyclopedic knowledge of the park’s resident cats.
I based myself in Puerto Natales, and Fabian picked me up each morning at 7.30 am for the 1.5-hour drive to the park. The beauty of visiting in early winter is that the days are shorter than in summer but not as short as in the dead of winter. With sunrise at 9.30 am and sunset around 5.30 pm, we could arrive in the park in pre-dawn darkness and stay until sunset. Pumas are also more active since they have to do their puma things in the shorter period of daylight.
In summer, longer days mean that you either snooze in the middle of the day or leave the park early, potentially missing the high activity period at dusk.
We based our search around the eastern border of the park, which is the best area for sightings, thanks to its open terrain and known puma territories.
There are approximately six pumas per 100 km² in the triangle between Laguna Armaga, Sarmiento, and Nordenskjold lakes. But we were focusing on the territories of two particular females: Petaka and Dania. These two (unrelated) puma mothers have their breeding territories near the roads and are remarkably tolerant of people and vehicles. Their tolerance and visibility earned them roles in wildlife documentaries: Petaka in “Pumas of Patagonia” by Disney, and Dania, as a cub, in “Dynasties 2” by BBC.
Day 1: Getting to Know the Pumas of Torres del Paine
The first day brought no pumas. We drove long stretches of empty roads along the park’s eastern border, scanning the hillsides and watching guanacos. The landscape was breathtaking — a mosaic of autumn golds and silvery scrub under a vast Patagonian sky. Once the sun had risen, Fabian showed me the remains of a guanaco kill, where puma family drama had unfolded the previous week.
A Puma’s story
A couple of months ago, Petaka lost both her upper canines. Some time later, she sustained two serious wounds and couldn’t hunt for a while to provide for herself and her two 17-month-old cubs.
Last week, she attempted to kill a guanaco but only managed to wound it. Her cubs then successfully brought it down. Perhaps, in part, this was a training exercise. Once the family had eaten, Petaka called Dania’s 5-month-old cubs to the kill. She allowed Dania to feed as well, which is even more remarkable since these two females are unrelated.
While Dania and her cubs were at the kill, a young male named Virgo—likely seeking to take over the territory—turned up and behaved antagonistically toward Dania’s cubs. The following day, Fabian and the other guides saw Dania with only one cub. It appeared that Virgo had killed the second.
This was only the beginning of Dania’s gut-wrenching story. The next morning, the guides found her second cub in the throes of death, most likely after being hit by a passing car. There was construction underway in the area, and trucks ferrying rocks from the quarry thundered back and forth along the road.
When Fabian saw Dania, she was searching for her last cub, calling out. When she discovered its body, caracaras had already begun picking at it. Dania tried to carry it away but couldn’t jump over the wire fence separating the road from the privately owned land of Estancia Laguna Amarga. She left the cub’s body near the road, covering it with grass to hide it from scavengers.
After she left, the guides lifted the cub’s body over the fence and placed it on the other side. When Dania returned, she carried it into a patch of scraggly bushes and concealed it again.
Disturbingly, the first puma we saw at Torres del Paine was a dead one. At 11 am, we came across another guide who had found the dead puma. With morbid curiosity, we went to investigate. She was lying on her side under a bush, with her hind legs swollen with signs of extensive internal bleeding. Her exceptionally long tail flung over a bush. She looked likely to have been hit by a car.
That’s two pumas in a week falling victim to their nonchalant attitude to vehicles. The unique relationship between pumas and humans in Torres del Paine National Park hinges on mutual respect. If pumas continue to fall victim to their trust in humans…. again…. it would be a tragedy.
Afternoon Walk in the Puma Land
After lunch, we walked along the first leg of the Base of the Towers track, past the upmarket Las Torres hotel and its beautiful Patagonian horses. This area is home to a couple of young pumas, and we walked in hopes of spotting them.
The walk took us across several bridges over the Ascencio River, named after cowboy Ascencio Brunel, who used to steal horses from nearby estancias and hide out in this area. The mountains towering over us were spectacular, even though they were shrouded in thick rain clouds for most of our walk.
When we got to the highest point of our walk, the spot where the climb to the base of the towers begins in earnest, the 360-degree view of this stretch of puma land was absolutely spectacular.
The afternoon drive did not turn up any puma sightings. Still, the anticipation was part of the thrill. Fabian reminded me: patience is everything.
On the way back to Puerto Natales, we saw a skunk running across the road! We got out of the car to have a look at him, but it was too dark for photography. And he seemed anxious about our presence – he was holding his tail up. We didn’t fancy getting sprayed, so we left him to his nightly adventures.
The last mammals of the day were a few hares racing across the road.
Day 2: Amarga and Dania
We had a frosty start to the second morning, with temperatures of about 0 degrees at 7:30 a.m. The streams and puddles in the park were frozen, so it must’ve been around -5 degrees overnight. The sky, however, was clear, and we watched a spectacular sunrise at Laguna Amarga.
We found our first puma sleeping out in the open about 40 meters up the hill from Laguna Amarga. This was Amarga or Estarcha (Frost). She is Petaka’s 4-year-old daughter, which makes her a granddaughter of Sarmiento, one of the two sisters whose nonchalant attitude towards humans gave rise to puma-watching tourism in Torres del Paine.
A curious thing about Amarga is that she only hunts (introduced) hares. Fabian explained that Petaka left her and her brother, Breeze, when they were still quite young, about 1 year and 3 months old. So perhaps Amarga never learned to hunt guanacos? Although her brother, Breeze, is an accomplished guanaco hunter.
Amarga was snoozing in an open patch between the clumps of stunted Patagonian bushes, yet when I took my eyes off her, it took me some time to locate her again. Even though I knew exactly where to look. Her tawny coat and rounded outline merged so well with the equally tawny, rounded bushes that she was barely visible. I probably would’ve never spotted her if I were driving by on my own.
Waiting for Amarga to wake up, we pulled into the Laguna Amarga car park. And with a sleeping puma on my left and the stunning lagoon on my right, I had to pinch myself to make sure this was real.
We waited for about 30 minutes, and when Amarga got up and started walking, Fabian was hoping that she would walk down from the slope and across the road. However, the group of photographers who were up there with her (the high-paying guests of Estancia Lagoona Amarga) started walking ahead of her, and she ended up walking up the slope and along its upper reach. We followed her progress, but she was getting too far, so we could only properly watch her through binoculars.
At one point, she neared a guanaco and hid in the bushes. Guanaco stood frozen in his tracks for a good 10 minutes, staring transfixed in her direction. And then, unexpectedly, he started walking towards where she was hiding. Eventually, he got too close, and Amarga half-heartedly launched after him for 2-3 meters, but the guanaco was faster. She then continued walking along the upper part of the slope and eventually disappeared over the ridge.
The Magic Happens
Later in the afternoon, the magic happened. We found Dania walking through the bushes a few meters away from the road. She was so close, I could look into her eyes. This was the kind of encounter I came to Patagonia for.
My excitement was dampened a little when Fabian told me this was the spot where she had buried her last cub. It’s been 9 days, but it appeared she was not ready to let go.
We stayed with Dania until the last light. She crossed the road to the other side and eventually lay down in the bushes. The estancia photographers followed her and were waiting for her to start moving again. As did we, on the road. But the light was disappearing, and we had a very close encounter with her already, so we let her be.
Day 3: Dania Returns
The final day brought the kind of encounter that will stay with me forever. We returned to the same area near Laguna Amarga. And there she was – Dania again, lying low in the same patch of bushes. But this time, something different happened. She stood, stepped out of the bushes, and walked directly toward us.
I barely breathed.
She moved with complete calm, aware of our presence, but unfazed. She effortlessly and gracefully jumped over the wire fence and, in a few heartbeats, covered the distance between us. I felt I could have reached out and touched her. She passed so close I could hear her footfalls. This is when I put down my camera and simply watched her walk, transfixed by her presence and proximity.
Then, without breaking stride, she crossed the road, right between us and our car and continued walking through the grass on the other side. As she walked, she paused to mark her territory several times and took the time to investigate the scents she found clinging to bushes and the tall grass.
We stayed with her as she slowly followed a distant herd of guanacos, pausing to listen and observe. Eventually, she crossed the road again, this time putting distance between us – her attention fixed on the animals ahead. That was our cue to let her be.
Encounters like that leave you changed. They fill you with a sense of awe that’s hard to describe – a mix of reverence, vulnerability, and gratitude for simply being allowed into her world.
It isn’t easy to come down from a high like this and continue with business as usual. We got word that Petaka made a kill deep within the estancia. This explained why we had seen no sign of her family in the past three days. It likely meant that we won’t be seeing her today either. We still went for a drive to the area, but couldn’t see them from the road.
Petroglyphs via the Sarmiento Lake Trail
So, we went for a walk along the Petroglyphs trail up the hill from the Sarmiento Lake, where another guide had seen a resident female, Ginger, the day before. This trail, considered the best puma spotting trail in the park, starts at the Lake Sarmiento entrance to the park and finishes near Lagoona Amarga, so you’ll need a car to pick you up at the other end. For these two reasons, the petroglyphs trail can only be done with a guide.
The entire trail, which ascends from the lake and then descends to the lagoon on the other side, takes approximately 3 hours. We only walked about a third of the trail up to the petroglyphs cave and back.
The uphill track in gale-force wind was a bit of a mission. It’s not a particularly scenic trail, mostly short, windswept grass. Although for most of it, you are walking towards the towering Paine mountains.
The petroglyphs are located under an overhang among a pile of giant boulders on top of the hill. The final approach to the hill is quite scenic, with a lagoon down below fringed by the Paine mountains in the distance.
The paintings themselves are not very impressive. They are faint, and there aren’t many of them. However, the view from the site provides a clear indication of why the early people chose it – it offers a 180-degree panorama of the valley below. Good for spotting predators and keeping an eye on your tribesmen.
3 Ways to Watch Pumas in Torres del Paine
If you’re thinking about your own puma-watching adventure, here are the three main ways to do it, from exclusive to DIY:
1. Stay at Estancia Laguna Amarga (Most Exclusive)
This private estancia borders the eastern edge of the park and is located in the heart of prime puma territory. In fact, Laguna Amarga farm has the highest density of pumas in the world. And because it’s on private land, you can approach pumas on foot once they’re spotted, while everyone else will be confined to the public roads. This allows for exceptional photo opportunities and extended time with the animals.
The way it works is that professional trackers go out searching for pumas before dawn and remain in the field all day. They know all resident pumas, their territories, their life stories, and how to track them.
Once a puma is located, the trackers radio the estancia tour guides, who bring the clients as close as possible to the puma in the car. Then, they lead their guests on foot to approach the cat within a few meters. There is no doubt that you will have the most extraordinary opportunities for close encounters with pumas if you can foot the bill.
- Cost: Around $2,000 USD per day (day visit only)
- Booking: Laguna Amarga website
- Best for: Wildlife photographers or travellers seeking maximum access and comfort
- Upside: Close encounters in controlled settings with professional trackers
2. Join a Guided Tour (Most Balanced Option)
This is what I did, and I highly recommend it. I joined Fauna Silvestrek for a three-day tour driving public roads in and around Torres del Paine. Because many pumas are habituated to vehicles, they often stay close to roads, allowing for incredibly close sightings, like Dania walking between us and our car.
Plus, guides who work together often tip each other off, which dramatically increases your chances of seeing a puma. Don’t worry, we are talking about a network of 2-3 guides, not an army of 20, like in the Pantanal, for example.
I highly recommend Fauna Silvestrek. Fabian’s calm presence and deep field knowledge made all the difference. His focus was always on the well-being of the animals and ethical, non-intrusive observation.
If you choose to stay in Puerto Natales, I highly recommend Bungalows by Toore Patagonia. The bungalows are cute, cozy, and warm. And they have small kitchennets, so you can buy groceries in the supermarket or in any of the mini-marts in town and make your own food.
- Cost: Mid-range — varies by guide and duration
- Booking a tour: Puma Watching Tour
- Best for: Nature lovers, serious wildlife watchers, and photographers
- Tip: Don’t book just one day. Give yourself 2–3 days for the best chance of a sighting
3. Go Independently (Cheapest, Least Reliable)
You can rent a car and explore the eastern roads around the park on your own. If you’re lucky, you might spot a puma — but without a guide’s trained eye, it’s easy to miss subtle signs or be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Honesty, unless you are a very experienced animal tracker, I wouldn’t recommend it. Professional trackers are familiar with the territories of resident pumas, the pumas themselves, and the subtle environmental clues that indicate their presence.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t get lucky. Some friends I made in Torres del Paine saw a puma independently and by pure chance. You can also read about Shaun’s adventures of independently looking for (and finding!) a puma in Torres del Paine.
If you choose this option, concentrate on driving the roads at the eastern-most border of the park. Most sighting reports come from these roads: Y-150 around Lake Sarmiento, Y-156 around Laguna Amarga, and Y-160 towards Laguna Azul. Check out this post from guest blogger Shaun Edmond about searching for pumas independently.
Scan the hills along the way, look for guanacos and listen out for their alarm calls. If guanacos look relaxed, grazing or leisurely walking, keep driving. If they look transfixed, staring in one direction, they probably detected a puma.
- Cost: Low (car rental + park fees)
- Best for: Budget travellers who understand the odds
- Drawback: Much lower success rate, especially in a short timeframe
When Is the Best Time to See Pumas in Patagonia?
If you’re serious about seeing pumas, plan your visit for the shoulder season: late April to late May and September to November.
During these times of year, the tourist traffic in the park is minimal. In mid-May, it felt like we had entire valleys to ourselves. We barely met any people on the trails we took. And fewer people mean more relaxed pumas.
The days are also shorter, which means you can arrive in the park at dawn and stay until sunset (8:30-9:00 am to 5:30-6:00 pm). So you cover both periods when pumas are most active. Having said this, all of my sightings occurred in broad daylight.
Shorter days also affect pumas – they have to do all their daytime puma things in a shorter period of time, so they are more active during the daylight hours.
Safety and Ethics: Watching Pumas the Right Way
Pumas are naturally shy and pose no threat if you keep your distance. A good guide will never let you get too close or behave in ways that disturb the animal. Here are some guidelines
- Stay quiet and calm
- Avoid sudden movements
- Never approach a puma
- Follow your guide’s lead
These animals are protected by law and by the growing ecotourism industry. Our respect helps ensure they stay safe and unafraid.
Other Wildlife You Might See in Torres del Paine
Torres del Paine is not all about the pumas, of course. We’ve also seen Guanacos (of course!), Grey foxes, skunks and introduced rabbits and hares.
We’ve also spotted a few interesting birds, including the Andean condor, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Chilean Hawk, American Kestrel, three species of Caracara (Southern, Chimango, and White-throated), Darwin’s Rhea (a smaller cousin of rheas of Argentina and Brazil), Grey-hooded Sierra-Finch, Long-tailed Meadowlark, Austral Thrush, Black-chinned Siskins, Great Thrush Tyrant, and the ever-present Austral Blackbirds.
The lagoons in the park turned up Upland geese, Yellow-billed Pintail, Spectacled Duck and Chiloe Widgeon.
I missed Flamingos in Torres del Paine (I also missed them on Chiloé Island), but thankfully, I found plenty in the Atacama Desert.
What to Pack for a Puma Watching Trip
Winter in Torres del Paine is cold, especially during early morning stakeouts. Pack layers — and then pack more. If you are planning more adventures after Torres del Paine, you will likely need the same warm clothes.
I travelled to the rain-soaked Valdivian rainforest of Chiloe Island and the high-altitude Atacama desert after Patagonia, and my winter woollies served me well for the entire trip. In fact, it was the coldest in the Atacama desert at minus 10 degrees. Here’s what you need to pack:
- Insulated, windproof jacket
- Thermal base layers
- Fleece
- Warm hat and gloves (you’ll be using scopes and cameras a lot)
- Insulated waterproof boots
- Waterproof jacket/poncho
Quick Tips Summary for your Patagonia Puma Quest:
- Best time to go: Shoulder seasons: Late April to late May and September to November
- Best place to see pumas: Eastern border of Torres del Paine, near Laguna Amarga
- Book a guided tour: Trackers like Fabian of Fauna Silvestrek are essential
- Pack warm and prepare for long hours: The rewards are immense
- Practice ethical wildlife watching: The pumas deserve it
More Wildlife Adventures in Chile
- Rainbow Valley Atacama Desert: The Most Underrated Landscape in Northern Chile
- Where to See Atacama Desert Wildlife around San Pedro de Atacama
- Complete Guide to Exploring the Atacama Desert Around San Pedro de Atacama
- Walking Through Chilote Mythology: A Self-Guided Tour of Castro, Chiloe
- Discovering the Wild Side of Chiloe Island in Tepuhueico Park
- Guide to Planning Your Patagonia Puma Quest in Torres Del Paine National Park
- Discovering Chilean Patagonia in Winter: Torres del Paine in May
- Llama vs Alpaca vs Vicuña vs Guanaco: How to Tell Them Apart
- 11 Stunning South American Wild Cats and Where to See Them
- Looking for Pumas in Chile Without a Guide
Your blog has been a brilliant source of info and inspiration for finding cats. We’ve followed your footsteps on our year-long world travels, and have seen Flat-headed Cat on the Kinabatangan, Leopards and an Ocelot in the Pantanal, and just this week saw a Puma on our last morning in Torres del Paine.
How exciting, Cam! I am thrilled to know my site has been useful for your cat-finding missions. Borneo and Pantanal are some of my favorite places on earth. Congrats on seeing a puma in Patagonia! I am planning a puma trip to Torres del Paine for next May. So fingers crossed. Please share any other encounters with cats you have on your journey.
Dear Shaun,
By independently you mean you drove inside the park in a car or how?
I thought one ha to be accompanied by a local guide?
Or did you drove outside the park area?
Kins regards Mette
Hi Mette,
Sorry for the late reply, I only checked this post just there for the first time in a few months! Anyway: if you go off the roads in the area outside the national park you need to be accompanied by a guide since it’s private land so they’re a good option for photographing puma. The roads themselves are public so you can drive around and still be in prime puma territory. A lot of people have seen them that way though of course it’s all a bit of luck – seeing them inside the park is a bit rarer, and seeing them from a bus is incredibly rare, but that’s how my story ended!