Adorned in a woollen scarf and a winter's hat that looked like a dead badger, I hunkered down behind a pile of boulders covered in lichen, held my breath, and hoped the cat wouldn't see me.
So far so good!
Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chilean Patagonia is known for its gorgeous mountains, hiking trails and glacial lakes. But it's also home to the most ecologically naive puma population in the world.
‘Naïe?’
‘It means they're not afraid of humans,’ said my guide, Claudio Vidal. ‘If we treat them with respect, we won't get mauled or eaten.’
I was feeling a tad exposed out there on the grassy mountain flank with nowhere to run should a puma come for me or my hat
‘But what counts as respect?’ I asked meekly.
‘Try calling it Sir!’ he said. I hoped he was joking.
From behind our boulder we spied on the formidable cat as it strategically stalked a small herd of llama-like guanacos, using rocks and tussocks for cover.
And then – whoosh – without warning she bolted like Usain; scattering the now hysterical herbivores and using the chaos to pick out her meal.
Sadly, we didn't witness the kill. It happened on the other side of a rise.
