Karukinka Natural Park is a 300.000 ha private park on Tierra del Fuego Island, a natural heritage of a unique biodiversity managed by Wildlife Conservation Society en Chile (WCS), standing as an innovative, and, above all, open, conservation model. It was named after the word the Selk´nam people, long-gone native inhabitants of this land used to call the island.

Here, you can learn more about Wildlife Conservation Society location and facilities.

From La Paciencia valley you can admire one of the most beautiful views in Tierra del Fuego: two almost endless ranges of green mountains carpeted with Nothofagus forests, and in the end, the waters of lake Deseado running towards lake Despreciado before meandering their way across the colourful peat bogs and down to the sea at La Paciencia Bay.

The emerald green forests that cover the mountains are the most extense and best-preserved tempered subantarctic rainforests in the world south of 54°S. They roughly cover half the area of Karukinka and are one of the purest and most pristine remaining subantarctic ecosystems. They are primary cathedral woods that have never been touched by human activity and have an abundance of ancient and giant trees, hence the “cathedral” forest name.

Karukinka’s peat bogs are real miniature forests, home to a rich diversity of insects, microbes, fish and peculiar lichen varieties, and cover 25% of the park. There´s also rare plant species adapted to flooded soils, scarce oxygen and little nutrients availability, like the Venus fly trap, a dwarf carnivore plant that captures insects by means of sticky tentacles in their reddish leaves.

Admiralty Sound, a narrow band of patagonian sea that bathes Karukinka, is a remote area that draws sea and land species uncommon in the rest of the country, such as Elephant Seal, Black-browed Albatross, Rock Cormorant, South American Sea Lion, Magellanic Penguin, Kelp Goose, Magellanic Oystercatcher or Leopard Seal. This coastal marine ecosystem is a natural stronghold of enormous biological and economical value, but also of a worrying fragility.

Mammals

At least 99 species of animals; 17 mammals, 77 birds and 5 fish species, have been recorded in Karukinka. Among the native mammals stands the Guanaco, which roams freely across steppe and forest in herds of adults and young.

Scarcer and skittish is the Fuegian Culpeo Fox, a threatened species that preys upon native flora and fauna and finds sanctuary in the forested areas of the park, making it difficult to be spotted.
Among the rodents, there´s species with lovely names like the Common and Magellanic Wooly Mouses, the Yellow-nosed Mouse, the Silky or Rabbit Mouse or the threatened, root-eating Magellanic Tucotuco. Three species of bats live here, too: Mouse-eared, Long-eared and Red. Marine mammals like Southern Sea Otter, Leopard Seal, Southern Elephant Seal, South American Sea Lion and Southern Fur Seal are quite abundant in these waters, where they feed on shellfish, fish and crustaceans. Antarctic Fur seal has been spotted occasionally. At least seven species of cetaceans, like Peale’s and Commerson’s Dolphins also occur here.

Many bird species like Flightless Steamer Duck and Kelp Goose, occupy coastal marine habitats and others like Black-necked Swan use both the coast and freshwater habitats.

The Nothofagus forests are home to raptors like Chilean Hawk, Rufous-tailed Hawk and Rufous-legged Owl, and other birds like the spectacular Magellanic Woodpecker, Austral Parakeet, Magellanic Tapaculo and Patagonian Tyrant. Other birds are quite abundant in most environments, like Rufous-collared Sparrow, Austral Thrush, White-crested Elaenia, Grey-hooded Sierra Finch and Black-chinned Siskin.