From its glaciers and pristine hardwood forests to its rugged coastline and wild fjords, Chile’s Patagonia remains remarkably undisturbed by human activity. Its dramatic and varied features, which include hundreds of islands, estuaries, and channels, provide critical habitat for a variety of plant and wildlife species.
However, these ecosystems and their inhabitants do not enjoy the world-class protections they deserve. That must change, and this decade offers the Chilean government an opportunity to implement proactive conservation measures that can ensure the region’s sustainability for years to come.
Take our quiz to find out how much you know about Chilean Patagonia and why it deserves protection.
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You can further explore the region’s diverse landscapes and wildlife to see why it deserves additional protections.
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# social text incomplete: How Much Do You Know About Chilean Patagonia? Try it yourself and see how much you know about this unique territory.
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# _imgurl : https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/Post Launch Images/2020/04/Patagonia Quiz/
? True or false: Blue whales in Chilean Patagonia have their own dialect.(!img[Shutterstock]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_1.jpeg) /!)
+ True
! After three years researching the acoustics of blue whales in Patagonia, oceanographer Susannah Buchan, in collaboration with the Chile-based research group
Centro Ballena Azul (Blue Whale Center), discovered these cetaceans have unique vocalizations that are unlike any other whale songs recorded in the world.
- False
? How many islands are in Chilean Patagonia? (!img[Nicolás Piwonka]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_2.jpeg) /!)
- Fewer than 100
- 1,250
- 20,000
+ More than 40,000
! There are 40,001 islands in Chilean Patagonia, of which 32,861, or approximately 82%, are in protected areas.
? How many acres are covered by native forest in the Chilean Patagonia national parks network? (!img[Tomás Munita]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_3.jpeg) /!)
- There is no native forest in Chilean Patagonia.
- 1,480 acres
- 148,000 acres
+ 1.46 million acres
! The national parks of Chilean Patagonia include 1.46 million acres of native forest, including the Nothofagacae family of trees—lengas, ñirres, and coigues.
? True or false: Chilean Patagonia’s coastline is 2.5 times the circumference of Earth. (!img[Nicolás Piwonka]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_4.jpeg) /!)
+ True
! The coastal line of Chilean Patagonia, including its islands, is 62,450 miles long, which is roughly 2.5 times the equatorial circumference of Earth.
- False
? What percentage of Chilean Patagonia is considered a protected area? (!img[The Pew Charitable Trusts]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_5.jpeg) /!)
- 21%
+ 49.6%
! Nearly half of Chilean Patagonia—32.96 million acres, an area about the size of Alabama—is designated as a protected area.
- 38.5%
- 62%
? How many acres are covered by glaciers in the Chilean Patagonia national parks network? (!img[The Pew Charitable Trusts]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_6.jpeg) /!)
- Less than 5,000 acres
+ More than 210,000 acres
! The 18 national parks in Chilean Patagonia have 210,039 acres of glaciers—70% of the area covered by all South American glaciers.
- Exactly 550,000 acres
- There are no glaciers in Patagonia.
? True or false: Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, one of the 18 in Chilean Patagonia, is larger than Belgium. (!img[Nicolás Piwonka]({_imgurl}PatagoniaQuiz_7.jpeg) /!)
+ True
! At more than 8.7 million acres, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park is more than 1 million acres larger than Belgium (7.5 million acres).
- False
