Pumas,Cougars,Mountain Lions,Catamount,whatever it is known by,and as numerous as they are throughout their range in all the Americas,these cats have proven to be a most elusive creature and frustrated many a determined wildlife photographer in their search for an image of this cat in the wild.My solo quest for these elusive images started back 1998 in Southern Chiles Torres del Paine national park.Inspired by a National Geographic documentary titled "Puma Lion of the Andes" I set off and to date have spent two years over a 5 year period camped in the park photographing the fauna,flora and landscapes of this rock and ice bound garden of eden.

One image that I was determined to capture(that has practically eluded all that have tried)was of Puma feeding at night at close quarters.It was always going to be a tall order to fill,but one I was determined to get.During my 5 trips to Torres I have had many close encounters with cats,but was not until spring of spring of 2002 that the right opportunity came along to snap the long dreamn`t of image.Late one afternoon returning to camp I decided to cut through a large patch of Mata Negra,a stiff abrasive shrub that grows in sporadic clumps in certain areas of the park,which I came to realise early on in my walks it would be an ideal place for Pumas to lay in wait for prey,as well as a great place to hide the carcass.I had only walked a matter of a few yards when I literally tripped on the carcass of a large Guanaco(llama guanacoe)a member of the South American Camel family,that a Puma had killed only a very short time prior to my arrival.I was to put it mildly, ecstatic,the carcass was still warm and only 70% covered with shrubs.I knew the cat or cats would be back for a major feed under the cover of darkness,so I headed for camp to pack food and drink reasoning I could be in for a long long night.I may have been dicing with death to try and capture the image but why starve to death waiting on a mountainside all night.My biggest dilema as how close I should allow myself to get to the carcass,I had a 600mm f4 Nikon and flah but to fill the frame as best I could I would have to get in there like Flynn and intrude on this midnight feast.

Back at the kill nothing was moving,least of all the 230 Lbs of Guanaco,but the butterflies in my stomach were at their zenith of activity as I settled 18ft(6 mtrs) away from the kill and set up my tripod for the 600mm.I purchased the lens 2nd hand from the great Frans Lanting 2 years previous,and I must admit that had my cellphone been able to have latched onto a signal I would have called the great one up and uttered the follwing "you are not going to believe what I am about to shoot with that overpriced lump of Japanese glass you sold me a while back",joking aside I would like to say thanks for being such a source of inspiration.I kept telling myself that the cat would be far more interested in the kill than me,but strangely enough a few statistics about the speed and distance a mountain lion can cover in a little over a second from a crouched position came to mind,topped off with the onset of darkness descending over the vast Patagonian landscape,I found it somewhat hard to appreciate the fresh coffee and biscuits I had in my hands. Patagonia is one of the windiest places on earth but that night not even the tiniest breeze was on the wing,you could have heard a mouse fart a mile away.

The hours passed like days,darkness engulfed me but no sooner had I accepted long hours of darkness that lay ahead than the sky began to glow as the ethereal milky light of a rising full moon filled the sky,and shed a little light on the situation.A fox barked in the distance which meant only one thing,a Puma was in the area.My throat dried up instantly as if the sahara had just lodged itself in there.I checkd my equipment,I would get possibly only one shot at this.Using the vision friendly light from the fullmoon I peered intensely all over the hill hoping to spot the direction it would appear from,preying it would not be from directly behind me.Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of the head and shouders of a beautiful female as she stopped on the edge of a clearing in the matta negra bushes.I cannot describe the mixture of fear and emotion pumping through me at that moment,my eyes welled up with fluid and I was not sure if it was because I wanted to cry due to the emotion of this very very rare moment I was about to witness,or because I was terrified at the prospect of being torn to shreds on this beautiful moonlit Patagonian mountainside.

Slowly the cat strode towards the kill and began sniffing the carcass,while behind me the moon was rising over the summit of the mountain at my back bathing the whole scene in an almost football stadium glow,it was now or never.Opportunities simply did not get much better than this.I winced as the Pumas canines sank into the ribcage and cracked a number of bones with the greatest of ease,the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I began to wonder if 18ft and no blind was such a great idea,but I was not about to move anything more than the forefinger on my right hand to squeeze the shutter release at that particular moment in time.The burst of flash did it`s job and the film moved a frame,I had the shot, but in the following second I continued to peer into the eyepiece half expecting an 160lb bundle of muscle tooth and claw to come leaping across the paltry moonlit gap seperating us,and slice and dice me for a future snack.

Instead I was on the recieving end of an "if looks could kill stare"for a couple of seconds before the cat returned to feeding.The relief was audible in the form of weighty sigh and I felt all my muscles relax and my bloodflow return to normal.I stayed put for half an hour and shot off another couple of frames,then decided it was to time to leave the party,I did not want to push my luck anymore than I had that night.I gathered my gear and returned to camp for a glass of fine Chilean red wine I had been saving for this very occasion.That night I was privileged and humbled to witness and photograph a very very rare private moment in the life of the elusive Patagonian Puma,a face to face encounter I will never forget,least of all the fire in those eyes.