El Palmar National Park (in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, ''Parque Nacional El Palmar'') is one of

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 ...

's national parks, located on the center-east of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Entre Ríos, midway between the cities of Colón (54 km) and Concordia (60 km). It has an area of about 85 km² and was created in 1966 for the preservation of its characteristic yatay

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

s (''

Butia yatay ''Butia yatay'', the jelly palm or yatay palm, is a '' Butia'' palm native to southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina. It is known as the ''butiá-jataí'' in Portuguese in the south of Brazil, as well as simply ''jataí'' or ''butiá'' ...

'', formerly ''Syagrus yatay''). The park has a temperate-humid

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

, typical of the Argentine Mesopotamia. The terrain features patches of palm trees of several species, grassland, small woods and forest, interrupted by streams flowing east into the

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( es, Río Uruguay, ; pt, Rio Uruguai, ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La M ...

. The local

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...

includes

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

ñandú The rheas ( ), also known as ñandus ( ) or South American ostriches, are large ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone) in the order Rheiformes, native to South America, distantly related to the ostrich and emu. Most tax ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es,

viscacha Viscacha or vizcacha (, ) are rodents of two genera ('' Lagidium'' and ''Lagostomus'') in the family Chinchillidae. They are native to South America and convergently resemble rabbits. The five extant species of viscacha are: *The plains visc ...

s, and capybaras.

References

Sources

El Palmar National Park
(in Spanish)

(in Spanish)

(in Spanish)
El Palmar Photographic Tour

External links

National parks of Argentina Protected areas of Entre Ríos Province Uruguay River Protected areas established in 1966 Ramsar sites in Argentina {{Protected-area-stub