Day 15: Karukinka
Today we had the opportunity to explore a privately owned nature preserve known as Karukinka, which means…”Our Land” in the Selknam language. They are local native people who have been here in Patagonia for 10,000 years.
It is in the heart of Tierra del Fuego and managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society. They have a diverse ecologic system. They have several conservation research projects and are developing educational programs for school students and helping preserve the natural habitat. The first Marine Protected Area in Tierra del Fuego, Admiralty Sound, is in Karukinka.
We landed in Jackson Bay and were able to walk along the beach and see many elephant seals with their young. The youngest baby seal is a dark black and is nursed by the mother for a month then it turns a light grey and is on its own for feeding and protecting itself. We saw several baby seals of different ages and they were darling.
After our beach walk we went into the forest and hiked to a waterfall. It was beautiful to see the vegetation and trees. The waterfall was a spectacular rush of water. We even forded a rushing stream.
Today was also the Bird Big Day, a global bird watching day organized by Cornell. They have apps called eBird and Merlin that allow birdwatchers to identify and report sightings. Scientists can then use this data to more accurately track the movement of species. We were able to find more than 40 species as a ship (which was quite good given the low species density in the region). Adrian even found one bird that the naturalist team hadn’t spotted!
