Copo National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Copo) is a federal protected area in

Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero (), also known simply as Santiago, is a province in the north of Argentina. Neighboring provinces, clockwise from the north, are Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán. History The indigenous inhabita ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Established on 22 November 2000, it houses a representative sample of the Dry Chaco

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

in average state of conservation. Located in the

Copo Department Copo Department ( es, Departamento Copo) is a department of Argentina in Santiago del Estero Province Santiago del Estero (), also known simply as Santiago, is a province in the north of Argentina. Neighboring provinces, clockwise from the no ...

, it has an area of .

Biodiversity

The climate is warm, with annual rainfall between . A large part of the park is made up of forests, with the Santiago red quebracho (''quebracho colorado santiagueño'') being its characteristic tree species. This tree has a strong wood and high content of

tannin Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'' ...

, and in the past it suffered a devastating exploitation in other parts of the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, Santiago del Estero was 80% quebracho scrubland; nowadays only 20% remain. Some of the endangered species that live in this park include the

maned wolf The maned wolf (''Chrysocyon brachyurus'') is a large canine of South America. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay, and is almost extinct in Uruguay. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a w ...

, jaguar, the giant anteater, the chacoan peccary and the giant armadillo.

References

Bibliography

External links

Administración de Parques Nacionales
- Argentina's National Park Administration (in Spanish) National parks of Argentina Protected areas of Santiago del Estero Province Protected areas established in 1998 {{Protected-area-stub