Pumas and Penguins: How an Unexpected Interaction Reshaped the Ecology of Coastal Patagonia

To combat ongoing declines of biodiversity worldwide, conservationists are increasingly looking to restore wildlife populations, with a central objective to re-establish their ecological influence. However, the ecological outcomes of wildlife restoration have been inconsistent, in part due to the significant ecosystem changes that have occurred over the time following the extirpation of target species. In Patagonia, the local eradication of mainland predators at the turn of the 20th century is believed to have triggered the expansion of Magellanic penguin colonies across the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Today, large-scale rewilding and conservation initiatives in the region have led to local recoveries of mainland predators, like the puma, leading to a novel predator-prey dynamic between pumas and penguins. This presentation will highlight the impact of this novel marine resource on puma behavior and density, as well as its impact on their primary prey, guanacos.