Punta Tombo

Between September and April, 1.5 million Magellanic penguins occupy Punta Tombo in Chubut Province — the largest penguin colony in South America — and the boardwalks through the colony bring visitors within arm's reach of nesting burrows where penguins regard passing humans with complete indifference, occasionally blocking the path to cross from one side to another. The smell arrives before the sound, and the sound arrives before the sight — a colony of this density has its own acoustic signature, a continuous burring and braying that carries across the steppe from half a kilometre away. A male penguin who returns each year to the same burrow, to find the same mate waiting, does not need to be explained to be understood.

Punta Tombo hosts the largest continental Magellanic penguin colony in the world — 1.5 million birds during peak season from October to January — and has been continuously monitored by the University of Washington since 1982, generating one of the longest-running penguin behavioural datasets on Earth. The colony was established as a Natural Reserve in 1979 and receives approximately 100,000 visitors annually, managed through a system of raised boardwalks that allow close observation without habitat disturbance. Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) are a migratory species that overwinter in Brazilian and Uruguayan coastal waters before returning each spring to their natal colonies; the individual birds at Punta Tombo return to within metres of their previous year's burrow. The adjacent coastline hosts sea lions, orcas during penguin migration season, and the most accessible flamingo lagoons in Chubut Province.