page_title: Chiloé Archipelago
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Chiloé Archipelago / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: Español: Macho de zorro chilote (Pseudalopex fulvipes) en Ahuenco, costa occidental de Chiloé, Chile. English: A male Darwin's fox in western coast of Chiloe, Chile Mapudungun: Wentru paynengürü Chillwe Wapi ñi nag lafken mapu mew
context_page_description: The Chiloé Archipelago is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and the Gulf of Corcovado in the southeast. All islands except the Desertores Islands form Chiloé Province. The main island is Chiloé Island. Of roughly rectangular shape, the southwestern half of this island is a wilderness of contiguous forests, wetlands and, in some places, mountains. The landscape of the northeastern sectors of Chiloé Island and the islands to the east is dominated by rolling hills with a mosaic of pastures, forests and cultivated fields.
  The archipelago is known within Chile for its distinctive folklore, mythology, potatoes, cuisine and unique architecture. The culture of Chiloé is the result of mixing of Huilliche, Spanish and Chono influences in centuries of isolation without much contact with the rest of Chile or the Western World. Its cool temperate climate, abundance of sea resources and large and lush forests have also played a major role in shaping life in the islands.
context_section_description: The archipelago's original vegetation is Valdivian temperate rainforest, a forest with a very dense understory and a large diversity of plant species, including many mosses and ferns. The western and southern portions of the island are still largely covered by the native forest. Notable species include arrayán (Luma apiculata), roble (Nothofagus dombeyi), quila (Chusquea quila), Chilean rhubarb, and the avellano (Gevuina avellana). Fitzroya cupressoides and tepú (Tepualia stipularis) grow in the poorly drained soils of the Piuchén and Pirulil ranges. Before the end of the Llanquihue glaciation, the southern parts of Chiloé Island constituted open landscapes. This changed around 12,500 years ago when the climate became warmer and forests colonized the region. The upper portions of Cordillera del Piuchén, locally known as la Campaña, has a Magellanic moorland vegetation.
  The arrival of agriculture in pre-Hispanic times was the origin of the patchy landscape of pastures and farms that now dominates the eastern and northern coast of Chiloé Island. Some native plants like Gevuina avellana and Fascicularia bicolor have edible seeds, and others like the Chilean rhubarb have edible stems. The most notable edible plant native to Chiloé is the potato (Solanum tuberosum), which contrary to the Andean potatoes of Peru and Bolivia is adapted to the long-day conditions prevalent in the higher latitudes of southern Chile. Hundreds of varieties of this potato have been cultivated by local indigenous peoples since before the Spanish conquest, and historical and molecular evidence suggests that it is the progenitor of the world's most widely cultivated variety of potato, S. tuberosum tuberosum.
  The native fauna include many birds, a few subspecies of which are endemic to the archipelago. Among land mammals the largest are Darwin's fox (named as such because Charles Darwin was the first to collect a specimen, on Isla San Pedro, Chiloé) and the pudú, a small deer. Marine mammals include Commerson's dolphins and South American sea lions which form colonies at rock outcrops close to the sea. Several species of whale have been sighted around the island, notably blue whales (see also Alfaguara project) and critically endangered southern right whales.
caption: Darwin's fox (Lycalopex fulvipes) is endemic to the southern portion of the Chilean Coast Range.
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