Are These Photographers Too Close to This Wild Puma?

An incredible video of a well-known puma moving through a crowd of photographers as she stalked her prey in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile prompted criticism online — but the photographers have defended themselves.

Dania is a famous and well-documented wild puma that lives in Patagonia. A video has gone viral after Dania ignored the photographers as she targeted a nearby guanaco.

A female puma named Dania moves past a group of photographers with her eyes fixed on a nearby guanaco pic.twitter.com/XGxd8UktP3

— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) July 13, 2026

Tour guides in Torres del Paine can easily recognize Dania thanks to a distinct cut on her left ear. The region is a famous ecotourism destination and Dania is part of a 200-strong population of pumas that is well-managed. Because of the many visitors to her home, Dania is remarkably calm and tolerant around humans and mainly gets on with hunting guanaco, a species closely related to the llama.

An amusing Twitter comment on the video.

Nevertheless, the footage of Dania so close to the photographers prompted an angry response from some of those watching on their smartphones.

“I cannot condone this behavior. I find it totally irresponsible and disrespectful,” reads the top comment, translated from Spanish, on the video above. “I think there is too much encroachment on their territory,” adds another voice.

However, one of the photographers, who was present at the scene, has hit back at the online commenters.

“Since we are the ones in the video—and were judged by people who WERE NOT THERE and did not know how the sequence unfolded, I feel a moral and ethical obligation to clarify the situation,” says photographer Belen Etchegaray.

“That is why we decided to share the COMPLETE, uncut sequence, which shows the puma walking toward us (rather than the other way around).”

Etchegaray reveals that the group was contacted by the Torres del Paine municipality over the “lack of safe sighting protocols.”

“It is important to clarify that we followed the instructions of the trackers at all times, remaining still on the road, and at no point did we approach the puma,” she says.

“We know there are colleagues who choose more intrusive practices, but we always respect the distances advised by our experienced guides. We do this because we are aware that in the wild, we are the guests — but primarily because everyone who accompanied me on this trip knows that taking a photo is never more important than the subject we are photographing.”

Etchegaray shared the full video, which shows Dania emerging from the bushes and nonchalantly making her way around the photographers like they’re not even there.

Torres del Paine Park is described as the premier destination in the world for photographers to capture shots of the magnificent animals, according to Pantera. The ecoreserve acts as a safe harbor for Patagonian pumas.