Once the large herbivores of the Pleistocene had disappeared, the hunter-gatherers that lived in the far south shifted their subsistence activities to hunting guanaco and ñandú, while complementing their diet by gathering edible wild plants. These early groups led a nomadic life, traveling through the large open spaces of the Patagonian steppe and Tierra del Fuego, with brief incursions into the mountain forests.
They often used the same caves as their megafauna-hunting ancestors, such as the one found at Cerro de los Onas in Tierra del Fuego. The terrestrial hunter-gatherer way of life lasted longer in this part of Chile than in the rest of the country: In the early 20th century the Tehuelche people were still living this way on the mainland while the Selk’nam did the same on Tierra del Fuego.