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These are some of the mammals, rodents, birds and other small animals of particular beauty, who share the neighborhood with right whales, sea lions, killer whales and dolphins.

Guanaco

Los Guanacos (Old guanicoe), are mammals, relatives of the llamas belonging to the order of the camelids, humbly bear the title of being the largest land vertebrates in the world. Patagonia. This beautiful animal species was, before the arrival of the white man, a fundamental ally for the survival of the indigenous people who inhabited Patagonia, providing meat as food and skin as shelter.

 The Peninsula Valdes It is a Provincial Reserve, but it is not an intangible park, that is why there are commercial activities, developed by 56 ranches that are mainly dedicated to sheep breeding and livestock exploitation with a history dating back to the early 1900s.

Mara or Patagonian Hare

It is a rodent that only lives in the Patagonia. It has a huge size, they can measure up to 70 cm and they are distinguished from the European hare mainly by the presence of a white stripe on the tail and by having small ears.

They are monogamous and often several pairs care for their young in the same burrow.
Mating begins in June or July, gestation lasts 3 months, that is why at the moment, in Peninsula Valdes you can see the babies. Once pregnant, the female makes a short tunnel of one or two meters that ends in an irregular chamber.

Choique

The Choique is native to the southern region of Argentina, its characteristic environment is the high Andean steppe. In general, it is an omnivorous animal, consuming mainly leaves, roots and seeds of various plants, but it also supplements its diet with some animal, such as small rodents, chicks of other birds and especially insects. They manage to reach 1.10 in height and a weight of 20 Kg.

The Rhea normally move in small groups of 5 to 30 birds, except in the mating and breeding season, when they are grouped in much larger numbers. The males are polygamous (have several females) and the females are polyandrous (have several males).

Pitch

The Pitch familiar of the mulita and the furry one, he likes to snoop all the time in search of food. It has very short ears and a grayish carapace with cream margins, somewhat convex, with approximately seven mobile bands, covered by few hairs and a very serrated edge. They are solitary and diurnal habits.

Their burrows are shallow and are usually located in sandy soils. The food diet includes insects, invertebrates, small vertebrates, plant matter and even carrion.

Grey Fox

The Grey Fox It is solitary, crepuscular and nocturnal in habit. To take refuge and raise their cubs, they use furry caves or tree hollows. It marks its territory with feces and urine. Their diet is very broad and opportunistic; It includes mammals, birds, eggs, reptiles, insects, and a good proportion of fruit and vegetable matter.

The fox

In the Peninsula Valdes los skunks they are quite abundant, and tend to approach the ranch houses and populated centers, especially very common in the region surrounding ThinTip. This skunk is not as social as other skunk genera, usually a single individual living in its own burrow.

The gestation period is 42 days, and they can have from 2 to 5 offspring, which are suckled from the 3 pairs of teats that the female has, after three months the offspring are already feeding themselves.

Cuis Chico

The Cuis Chico (Microcavia australis) It is a mammal that feeds on the shoots of various plants, climbs the branches of the bushes to reach the most tender leaves. At the time of heat, which lasts about 5 hours, the female is chased by several males who copulate with her to fertilize her. In these small animals, gestation is just under two months.

They are very funny and elusive animals, although they can be seen frequently in the different tourist attraction points; where the visitor looks, for example, at El Doradillo beach, while the whales hypnotize the gaze, in some nearby bush that abounds on these coasts, these guinea pigs live an attractive life in anonymity. Reserved observation, for those visitors who connect with the subtlety of this Natural paradise.

Sheep

With the colonization and development of the area, new animals arrived, one of them was the sheep that in order to raise and market them they used inventions such as fences, private property and the consequent division of land. The guanaco, was displaced by this sheep wool production strategy and came to decrease in number considerably. 

Guanacos live in herds of dozens of individuals and are herbivores. Peninsula Valdes It is a unique wildlife reserve, where hunting is prohibited. This wise law allowed the number of guanacos to be much higher than the rest of Patagonia over the years.

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