SEA BIRDS
Pennsula Valds is one of the principal locations on the Patagonian coast featuring abundant and varied sea bird life.

On De los Pjaros Island, with 2.2 hectares, there is a great variety of birds.

Recent research identified 6 marine and visiting species: the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus), the rock cormorant (Phalacrocorax magellanicus), the neotropic cormorant (Phalacrocorax olivaceus), the kelp gull (Larus dominicanus), the great egret (Casmerodius albus) and the black-crowned night-heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).

GUANACO
The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is the largest and the most widely distributed of the South American camelids. It lives on one of the planet's most hostile environments: from the hot, windy lands of southern Peru to the semi-arid steppe of Argentine Patagonia.

Much before contact was made with Europeans, some 8 thousand years ago, this animal was a vital resource for the survival of pre-Hisstoric men as they poured into the area.

Images of guanacos are found everywhere, either in cave paintings and rock engravings.

Currently this species is not endangered on some pars of the continent. However, hunting and climate and habitat changes have caused a severe drop in its population.

This fact has proppted the adoption of integrated conservation programs.

An adult guanaco reaches 1.75 m in height, and weighs between 80 and 120 kg. It has pads on its feet that prevent trampling damage to ground vegetation. It has a highly mobile and sensitive mouth, enabling it to select its food among thorny and woody type vegetation.

Mating season is from November to February, when the young are born. The newborn foals weigh between 8 and 15 kg. The guanaco is a diurnal animal with a very special social behavior.

The family groups vary from 2 to 30 members. Due to its light reddish-brown fur and lighter areas around the lips and inner portion of the limbs, it is one of the easiest species to view on the fauna reserves of this part of South America, especially those of Valds and Tombo.

Some 600,000 guanacos are thought to reside in South America. Of the total, 94% is in Argentina, 5% in Chile and the remaining 1% in Peru and Bolivia. The largest densities are now located in the southern tip of Patagonia.

Recent research indicates that almost 12,400 guanacos inhabit the northeast of Chubut, with an average population density of around one guanaco per square km2. Pennsula Valds houses some 2,200 animals in 4,000 km2.

LESSER RHEA (CHOIQUE)
The lesser rhea (Pterocnemia pennata) is an enormous bird tobe always seen along the way on one's walks through Pennsula Valds. It is one of the two "South American ostriches" with three toes, unlike their African relative, that only has two.

The lesser rhea is obvious. A good runner on the Patagonian steppe, it reaches 1.10 m height, and is smaller than the wet pampas variety, the greater rhea (and), with long legs and neck, a small head and without the rigid tail and wing feathers.

Its head, neck and back are a dark browni gray; unlike the greater rhea, it has feathers on the top of its torso. It may be found in groups. They are polygamous, and the male incubates and guards the enormous eggs.

Their nests are built on the ground. There they lay several cream-colored eggs that will later hatch, and the "charitos" (as the chicks are called), will follow their father during almost the whole summer. In winter, mixed groups of males, females and juveniles are created.

ARGENTINE GRAY FOX
The Argentine gray fox (Pseudalopex griseus) is a South American canine species distributed over the herbaceous and bushy steppes outside the Andes, in Patagonia. It has long prominent canines, and its molars and pre-molars form the famed "butcher's knife", a sharp edge used for slicing the meat of its prey.

Although these foxes are carnivorous, they have a vaaried diet, and also eat fruit and insects at those times of the year when rodents are scarce and they are unable to trap birds.

They weigh no more than 4 kg and measure 90 cm in total length. They have a clearly visible tail that is dark brown on the ventral side and black elsewhere. Their snout is acute and they possess large triangular ears.

Their reproductive season starts in August. Males and females can be seen together only in September and October. After 58 days of pregnancy, in early November, they start giving birth to litters of 3 to 5 pups that follow their mothers all summer up to the first months of fall.

On Pennsula Valds the gray fox is an animal often found near the wildlife rangers' dwellings. They stay near the rangers because they feel protected by them, and also because of the extra rations they get from them.

OTHER SPECIES
Different species inhabiting Puerto Madryn and Pennsula Valds are the mara (Patagonian hare), the piche patagnico, the southern crested-caracara (carancho), the upland goose, the stylish crested-tinamou, the rock cormorant, the kelp gull, the snowy egret, the American oystercatcher, the plovers, the dotterels and the southern lapwing.

INFORMATION ON FAUNA VIEWING SEASONS
Viewing seasons are the following:
Birds, usually: all year round.
Whales: May to December.
Elephant seals: all year round.
Sea lions: all year round.
Penguins: October to March.
Saffron-white tuna: April through December.
Dark dolphins: December through March.
Orcas: January through April and October to December.
Within the land fauna the following ae to be seen all year round:
tinamous, lesser rheas, guanacos, maras and gray foxes.