Spotting Pumas in Torres del Paine: A Wildlife Adventure in Patagonia

During our adventures driving around South America, seeing wildlife is one of our big highlights we've been focused on. (Jordan is a bit of a nerd for wildlife) We’ve been chasing whales, penguins, guanacos, toucans, macaws, jaguars, pumas and many more exotic animals. 

We knew going to Torres del Paine there were a couple options for seeing pumas and even living in Colorado with Mountain Lions nearby,  we wanted to see if we could spot Pumas in Patagonia.

There are 2 main ways to see pumas in Torres del Paine.

You can see them driving around in your own car, or you can go on a paid tour. There isn't really any other option because the park is far away from everything and the pumas are also pretty remote.  

We talked to some friends who had driven around in their own vehicle and spotted pumas around Torres Del Paine park, so we opted to drive ourselves and hope for a little luck.  We had researched some guide options and got recommendations from friends incase we didn't have any luck. But as you can already see from the photos above, we saw pumas. 

Tips for Seeing Pumas in Torres del Paine:

1. LOOK FOR STOPPED VEHICLES, especially with folks standing outside with huge expensive cameras. This was the easiest way for us to spot pumas on 3 different occasions. When you see the guided tours stopped, best bet is they are looking at wildlife or something you would want to stop for also.
2. Pumas are most active a few hours after sunrise and before sunset. They are typically sleeping in the middle of the day. If they’re asleep, they are SO HARD to spot, but refer to #1 as having your own vehicle doesn’t make this a big challenge

1. Talk to the park rangers. There are certain sections of the park you are most likely to see them which I’ve tried to highlight below, but there’s no reason not to talk to the rangers when you check in
2. Bring binoculars and a big telephoto lens. I was using a 300mm zoom and that was dwarfed by most of the folks on photo tours. In many cases the cats may be far away and hard to see.

Also note if you’re going self-guided, fill up on gas before leaving, there’s a lot of driving and no gas.  Bring changes of clothes, snacks and extra water. There’s a lot of territory to explore but not a lot of affordable resources.  For us, having our camper, kitchen, bathroom, fridge, etc. made it a treat to just hang out for hours waiting for the pumas to move and get active and doing it all in the comfort of our own camper was awesome.

Where to see Pumas in Torres del Paine?

The most recommended areas to see pumas in TdP are:

-Laguna Amarga (also an incredible viewpoint of the towers)

-Driving Y-160 to Laguna Azul

-The loop we did a few times was Road Y-156 looping to Y-160 to Laguna Azul to Y-166 past Cascade Rio Paine (beautiful spot!) & back to the Laguna Amarga Ranger station (see map)

-Road Y-150 near Laguna Sarmiento (this section was closed for us when we were there, but was recommended before.  There is also a hiking trail near there that is reserved for GUIDES ONLY)

 We drove this loop a few times and is where we saw all our pumas (Image links to map)

Guided Tours for Pumas in Torres del Paine

The other way to find pumas is a paid tour guide to drive you. Most of the time leaving from Puerto Natales into the park to explore, or if you stay at a fancy hotel near the park.

There are options for private guides which will travel with small groups of 1-5 in a small van or SUV and there are larger tours that could be anywhere from 5-20 people in a bus.

No doubt about it the private guides are pricey, but there are quite a few advantages:

1. They are professionals who do this everyday
2. They can access certain areas popular for pumas but off limits without a guide
3. They all use a radio system to communicate when they see pumas
4. They know the names, ages and histories of the animals - this can really add a lot to your experience
5. They can take you to other parts of the park, show you places off the beaten path and focus on great viewpoints
6. They can take pictures for/with you

The challenge with guided trips, as well as most of Chilean Patagonia is things are pricey.  A single day can easily cost $500+. For us as travelers hoping to extend our travel as long as possible, budget is a big concern. This is the main reason we decided to drive ourselves.

Since we didn’t take a guided Puma tour, we can’t verify many of them.  But we ran into Felipe a few times on tours and talked with him some.  He runs an amazing Instagram account, @FotoSafariTorresDelPaine and has been giving private tours all around the park for many years. If we went on a private tour, this is who we would choose as he seemed so knowledgeable, had a guide book he personally made documenting all the Pumas in the park….I asked for a copy but he understandably wouldn’t share, but showed me a bit. And let us know the pumas we saw were Blinka (the one-eyed mother) and her two juveniles.

Have you gone to Torres del Paine to spot Pumas before?  Anyone you recommend?  Anything we missed?  Shoot us a note on Instagram @VitaminSeeMore to share any tips or ideas to help us update this article!