Welcome to the wonderful world of Chilean wildlife; a huge, magnificent and surprising collection of animals inhabiting one of the most geographically diverse countries in the world. Chile is a land of extremes; from the driest desert in the world to the cold archipelago at ‘the end of the earth’ and even an isolated pacific island in between. With so much bio-diversity, it’s easy to see how Chile became the place where Charles Darwin made some of his most vital observations, those that would influence his theories on natural selection. Volcanoes and mountains line the interior border with neighbouring Argentina and are home to some very resilient and well adapted land mammals, while birds of all shapes, colours and sizes fill the skies thrilling any visiting bird-watcher. Chile is, in short, a nature lover’s paradise. Today the focus is on fish, mammals and amphibians that exist in the fresh water…
Thursday night the BBC aired its latest episode from the brilliant series Natural World and here at Latin Routes it did a great job of reminding us why we love the Antarctic so much. The fascinating hour long programme, Penguin Post Office, was filmed over a 6 month period on the Island of Goudier in the Antarctic Peninsular. The show follows a colony of over 4000 Gentoo Penguins that live just outside the island’s only Post Office in Port Lockroy. The Gentoo is one of 17 species of penguins that breed in the Antarctic and sub Antarctic islands… that’s a lot of penguins! The film crew documented the colony’s story throughout the 6 month stay, showing us how comical, mischievous and resilient the little Gentoos can be. I wanted to know more about the filming of the show so I started reading the Penguin Post Office blog (https://penguinpostoffice.blogspot.co.uk/), which I found…
The Antarctic is a beautiful, unspoiled continent – one of the last true wildernesses left on Earth, it has a fascinating array of wildlife and many hidden surprises. Here are 10 facts to inspire you to think about visiting this stunning and unique place. 1) 90% of the world’s ice is located in Antarctica. 2) Only 2% of the Antarctic continent is not covered in ice. 3) The Antarctic’s ice sheet is, at its thickest, over 4.5km deep. 4) The Emperor Penguin is the only warm-blooded animal to remain in Antarctica during the winter. 5) Antarctica is technically a desert, since it experiences almost no rainfall. 6) Australia is approximately half the size of the Antarctic. 7) Because the sun rises in October and doesn’t set until March, Antarctica has no established time zone. 8) Antarctica grows by about 40,000 squares miles every day in the winter months – freezing…
