John Byron, who had been a castaway on Wager Island in Chilean Patagonia, later in 1741, later, as a commodore, led a British naval squadron in 1764 and sailed around the globe. During his voyage, they stopped in the Strait of Magellan, at the site of Port Famine, a failed Spanish settlement, close to what is now Punta Arenas in Chile. There his crew encountered some strange beasts during their stay (Dec. 27, 1764 to Jan. 4, 1765). Below is what Byron wrote.
Source: John Hawkesworth's Account of the Voyages'in the Southern Hemisphere' (Online) and also Online here
" I had set up a small tent at the bottom of this bay, close to a little rivulet, and just at the skirts of a wood, soon after the ship came to an anchor, where three men were employed in washing: they slept on shore; but soon after sunset were awakened out of their first sleep by the roaring of some wild beasts, which the darkness of the night, and the solitariness of their situation in this pathless desart, rendered horrid beyond imagination: the tone was hollow and deep, so that the beasts, of whatever kind, were certainly large, and the poor fellows perceived that they drew nearer and nearer, as the sound every minute became more loud. From this time sleep was renounced for the night, a large fire was immediately kindled, and a constant blaze kept up: this prevented the beasts from invading the tent; but they continued to prowl round it at a little distance, with incessant howlings, till the day broke, and then, to the great comfort of the affrighted sailors, they disappeared. At this place, not far from where the ship lay, there is a hill that has been cleared of wood, and we supposed this to be the spot where the Spaniards formerly had a settlement*. One of the men, as he was passing over this hill, perceived that, in a particular part, the ground returned the sound of his foot, as if it was hollow: he therefore repassed it several times, and finding the effect still the same, he conceived a strong notion that something was buried there; when he came on board, he related what he had remarked to me, and I went myself to the spot, with a small party, furnished with spades and pickaxes, and saw the spot opened to a considerable depth, but we found nothing, nor did there appear to be any hollow or vault as was expected. As we were returning through the woods, we found two very large skulls, which, by the teeth, appeared to have belonged to some beasts of prey, but of what kind we could not guess."
So these were (in Byron's words) howling, roaring, large wild beasts. The skulls were large, some unknwon beast of prey.
Puma sounds like the most likely option, though jaguars could also have been present in that area in the mid eighteenth century. I doubt any megafaunal predators were alive at that time. Smaller beasts could have been the D. avus wolf-fox but it wouldn't have roared, it was a canid, so it would have howled or growled.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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