Reintroduced Rheas Help Restore Patagonia’s Grasslands
A new season of Darwin’s rhea releases in Patagonia National Park is bringing forth a hard-won recovery of this locally endangered flightless bird. An emblematic species of the Patagonian steppe, the rhea plays a fundamental role in creating and maintaining healthy grasslands by dispersing seeds to renew vegetative growth. In Chile’s Aysén region, more than a century of overgrazing, hunting, and nest destruction has threatened the rhea’s survival.
This year marks the most rhea releases in Patagonia National Park since the program’s inception in 2014. Tompkins Conservation donated over 200,000 acres in 2019 to help create the 750,000-acre park. According to Cristián Saucedo, director of rewilding at Tompkins Conservation Chile, “Active restoration of rheas has proved instrumental to its survival. We have tripled the population to approximately 70 specimens and increased their habitat in the national park by over 30%.”
With support from the Chilean Forestry Service (CONAF), the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG), local law enforcement, and nearby communities, the program has added wildlife rangers, dismantled fences, controlled poaching, and removed predatory wild dogs.
Patagonia National Park features the greatest terrestrial biodiversity in the region, with habitats ranging from Patagonian steppe to forest and wetlands. It’s home to numerous endangered and threatened species, including 10% of the global population of the highly endangered huemul, the south Andean deer.
Darwin’s rhea (c) Jan Vincent Kleine, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Formerly one of the largest working ranches in Chile, the Chacabuco Valley was historically overgrazed by intensive sheep ranching. Through a long process of restoration and rewilding, its native grasslands are recovering and wildlife has returned in numbers, including herds of guanaco (a South American camelid), flamenco, and puma. Kristine Tompkins, president of Tompkins Conservation and UN Patron of Protected Areas, also credits private donors, volunteers, and allies like Estancia Baño Nuevo and Fundación Reserva Quimán, which have donated specimens to bring genetic diversity to the population. “Rewilding is the work of many,” says Tompkins. “We cannot underestimate the importance of both partnerships and individual actions in the fight to save species, and restore wild places to their intended splendor.”
The rhea reproduction program was highlighted in the latest IUCN report on global conservation and translocation.
Tompkins Conservation, a strategic partner of Tompkins Conservation Chile, is actively working to reverse the global extinction crisis by rewilding the Americas. Rewilding means restoring natural processes, functionality, and missing species to protected and connected landscapes, then stepping away to let nature heal into wholeness.
Watch below to learn more about the Darwin’s rheas program:
A driving force to curb the worldwide climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis, Tompkins Conservation protects, rewilds, and defends land and marine ecosystems in the Southern Cone through collaborating to create national parks and rewilding key species. Working with public and private partners, the organization has helped to create 13 national parks, protecting 14.5 million acres. The goal is to restore a healthy planet with big, wild, and connected landscapes where animals and plants can thrive. This also means helping to build robust communities that benefit from a healthy natural world.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and Douglas Tompkins (1943-2015) founded Tompkins Conservation after leading iconic American clothing brands—Kristine as longtime CEO of Patagonia Inc, and Doug as co-founder of The North Face and Esprit. Changing course in the early 1990s to focus on conservation, they became two of the most successful conservation philanthropists in history. After Doug lost his life in a tragic kayaking accident in 2015, Kristine has continued to build on their foundation. She is now the president of Tompkins Conservation and a UN Environment Patron of Protected Areas.
A 501(c)(3) public charity, Tompkins Conservation carries out conservation projects through the nonprofit network of Rewilding Chile and Rewilding Argentina.