Fuegian palm trees, rhea and a penguin with scales

Tierra del Fuego is a large island on the southernmost tip of South America. It lies on the south side of the Strait of Magellan. It is shared by Argentina and Chile. Its name means "Land of Fire," due to the fires spotted by Magellan during the expedition, lit by the Selk'nam natives.

Its northern part is grassy, cold, and windswept, as you move south towards the Andes open forests appear and then, in the mountain range, dense, tangled Andean woods. Snowcapped mountains and glaciers line its southern flank. Freezing in winter, slightly less cold during summer.

However, the Dutch depicted it differently during their expeditions that took place in the early 1600s. They were seeking a way to the East Indies that didn't go through the Strait of Magellan, which was zealously claimed by Spain, or along the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. They explored Staten Island and found a way around the south side of the Island

The map below (online and zoomable) shows the ships of Joris van Spilbergen's expedition that navigated the Strait of Magellan in 1615. It depicts different scenes that took place in Tierra del Fuego.

Tierra del Fuego in 1615.

The image shows a penguin (marked with a letter "H") that is captioned in the text as follows: "H. Is a penguin, which are to be seen in great numbers there." Notice that it looks scaly rather than feathery! Then there is a tree that oddly resembles a palm tree (in the icy fireland!), further right there is a large bird being shot at by some Dutch sailors (caption reads "I. Are some sailors shooting birds on land.") The size of the birds is interesting. The penguin is as large as the natives. Is it some kind of giant penguin? If so, it became extinct.

The land bird to the right may be a ñandú or rhea, a flightless bird that inhabits southern South America and Patagonia, but nowadays is not found in Tierra del Fuego. Its size -as tall as the sailors- suggestss it was a rhea.

The Fuegian natives had a myth about the rhea, which they called "Ohi," indicating that it lived in the Island before it was hunted to extinction (read about this myth: the intriguing Ohi)

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Ohi - a Rhea?

 

Jan Janssonius 1658 Map of Tierra del Fuego. From [1]

I found this old map of Tierra del Fuego, it was published in 1658 by Dutch engraver Jan Janssonius as "Tabula Magellanica qua Tierrae del Fuego...".

It shows some cherubic looking Fuegian natives lassoing a ñandú Lesser Rhea (Rhea pennata) or South American Ostrich in Tierra del Fuego. They are placing a noose around its neck and shooting arrows at it.

The bow and arrows part is correct, as the local Selk'nam natives hunted with bow and arrow (unlike the other Patagonian natives of the mainland who used boleadoras).

Boleadoras. The name boleadora derives from the Spanish word “bola” (ball); they were stones balls sheathed with leather and attached to strong tendon straps that were whirled above the head to gain momentum and then thrown so as to entangle around the hunted animal’s legs.

The noose was not reported by any chroniclers so it is a novelty!.

But the most surprising part is the "ostrich" because nowadays there are no rheas on Tierra del Fuego Island, and they have not lived on it at least for several thousand years.

The evidence of them having been on the Island is tenuous and and based on a "First phalanx" bone dated 9.960 ± 50 years Before Present.[2] Which is the only phisical proof of their presence on the island.

But if they did... then they could have been the origin of the Ohi myth.

Bibliography.

[1] Jan Janssonius as "Tabula Magellanica qua Tierrae del Fuego...". From: Gerard Valk & Petrus Schenk, Composite world atlas, 1715.
[2] Martin, Fabiana M et al. Presencia de Rheidae en Tierra del Fuego durante la Trancisión Pleistoceno-Holoceno: Implicancias Biogeográficas y Paleoecológicas. Magallania, Punta Arenas, v.37, n.1, jul.2009. doi:10.4067/S0718-22442009000100014.



Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Intriguing "Ohi"

 

The Fuegian Selk’nam told Lucas Bridges[*] about a strange creature, the Ohi, that was half guanaco and half bird.

Ohi, was a strange hybrid, as it combined avian features with those of the guanaco. Its hind legs were like those of a guanaco yet it had wings. It could not fly, but it ran faster than a dog.

[*] Stephen Lucas Bridges (1874-1949). was the third son of English Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges. Lucas was the first European to be born in Tierra del Fuego. He grew up among the Yagans and learnt their language and customs. He moved from Ushuaia to Harberton in 1887, where his father established a ranch (“estancia”) after retiring from mission work. In 1902 he set up his own ranch at Viamonte, where he would meet and befriend the Selk’nam. His autobiographic book Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948) is a valuable source on Fuegian anthropology.

The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) is the ancestor of the llama, alpaca and vicuña. It is a hoofed ruminant (cud-chewing) mammal distantly related to the camel family (it is a camelid). Abundant in Patagonia, its habitat extends north through Argentina up to Peru and Bolivia. It was the staple diet of the Patagonian natives. It is also found in Tierra del Fuego Island.

Lesser rhea (Rhea pennata). Author's photograph at Rio Pinturas, Santa Cruz province, Argentina. Two well camouflaged "ñandú" can be seen in the central part of the image.
Copyright 2007 by Austin Whittall

Lesser rhea (Rhea darwinii) Illustration by John Gould, from Zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (Plate XLVII page 122).

Bridges was sure that it was the description of a ñandú, but these do not live in Tierra del Fuego (and perhaps never did, though there is some evidence that they may have; see my post on this new evidence Here).

Furthermore, his Selk’nam informants had never left the island so they never had the chance to meet a ñandú.

This led Bridges to believe that they had brought the notion of Ohi from Patagonia before the end of the last Ice Age cut them off from the mainland when the Strait of Magellan flooded and filled with sea water isolating the Selk'nam in Tierra del Fuego.[1]

The Patagonian ñandú or choique, also known as Lesser Rhea (Rhea pennata), is a flightless bird similar to an ostrich. It is 1 m (3.3 ft.) tall and weighs 20 kg (44 lb.). It can run at speeds of up to 60 km/h (37 mph). Like the Australian Emu, it has three toes on its feet (Ostriches only have two).

Darwin had heard from the local gauchos that the Patagonian variety of ñandú was shorter and smaller than the one found in the Pampas, he confirmed this during his voyage by Patagonia. In 1837 naturalist John Gould described the animal and named it Rhea Darwinii after Darwin. But, the first European to report this animal was French naturalist Alcide D'Orbigny, who in 1834 had seen the bird and named it Rhea pennata.

The myth may also indicate that some other kind of flightless bird managed to survive the megafaunal extinctions during deglaciation and lived isolated in Tierra del Fuego until it was hunted to death by the natives. However there is no proof of any other flightless bird in Patagonia beyond the Lesser rhea.

Bibliography.

[1] Bridges, L., (2008). El último confín de la tierra. B. Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. pp. 432.

Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters