Saving Darwin’s Rhea: How Rewilding Is Bringing Patagonia’s Endangered Wildlife Back to Life
Sunday, 18 October 2026
Just a few years ago the number of Darwin’s Rheas left in Chile’s
Patagonia National Park were down to less than twenty – and the future of the
species in this area looked bleak. Over
a hundred years of intensive sheep and cattle farming had done the damage and in
2016 a small team of women were sent to try and shift the balance back in the
favour of Darwin’s Rhea. Thousands of
acres of farmland were purchased and the process of de-fencing began which
would allow the species space to roam.
It wasn’t long before a lot of species started to return – the rhea is
well known for spreading seeds in its droppings – and a rewilding was underway. Image
There are other problems – and not only from wild animals
like the puma. There are also feral dogs
abroad on the Patagonian steppe and these have to be slowly eradicated.
Also, although many fences have been removed, the job is not yet done
and numbers of animals are caught in them each year. This video from Mongabay focuses on the
attempts to allow Darwin’s Rhea to create a foothold in its former habitat –
and fortunately, it seems to be working!