Kyle Barden's Editions: Playful Paine

This piece is part of a micro series called The Personality of Paine that belong to a larger series, Pumas of Patagonia.

Paine is a young male puma who is at the age where he will part ways with his mother and sister to fend for himself. During my time with him in the foothills of Torres Del Paine he did not appear to be a dominate male ready to strike out on his own. In fact it was quite the opposite. He seemed uninterested in hunting and would leave that to his mother, he spent most of the time lounging around and being somewhat playful.

This image captures him on one such occasion where he rolled onto his back and looked directly at me as if to say rub my belly. My experience with my own cat has taught me that this is not advised and is the perfect position to sink all four sets of claws in at once!