246 THROUGH THE HEART OF PATAGONIA 



Guanaco. The evidence is contradictory, but it may be taken 

 that these animals will aliow a man to proceed toivards them to 

 within eighty yards ; at any rate, in most cases. But if a man 

 remain stationary, they will be inclined to approach him a little 

 nearer. 



Huemules will allow man to approach within fifteen yards. It 

 he remain perfectly still, they will go almost up to him. 



Puma {Fe/is concolor piund). If unacquainted with man, will 

 occasionally attack him. 



Cordillera wolf. Utterly fearless of man. W^ill, if approached 

 too closely, show sio;ns of taking the offensive. Will stand over 

 his kill until the human intruder is within a foot or so. 



Pampa fox. Will allow approach to within twenty yards. 



I have already described the attitude of all these animals 

 towards man in the more settled districts, with the one exception 

 of the Cordillera wolf. Concerning this animal no data, so far as I 

 know% exists, as his range does not, in my experience — I am here 

 open to correction —extend beyond the foothills of the Cordillera. 



The whole of my personal knowledge as to the behaviour of 

 animals toward man on first meeting with him leads me to believe 

 that none but extremely broad rules can be laid down on the sub- 

 ject. It would be very dif^cult to prophesy the precise attitude 

 likely to be adopted by any individual animal under this condition, 

 for the evidence concerning animals of the same species varies so 

 largely. I am, therefore, driven to believe that the conduct of 

 any given animal depends on its own special turn of character ; 

 that it is, in fact, a matter of individual temperament. In the case 

 of a group of animals, the note of the behaviour of the whole group 

 would be given by either the leader of the herd, or would depend 

 on the first instinctive action of that one of the group which was 

 the first to perceive the strange object. 



But, having stated the evidence which I gathered, it will be 

 better to leave others to draw their own conclusions. 



