The Los Estoraques Unique Natural Area ( es, Área Natural Única Los Estoraques) is one of the smaller

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

s, covering only , located in the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia in the Norte de Santander Department. The landscape is shaped by large brownstone pedestals and columns formed by thousands of years of

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...

. The area is part of the Catatumbo River basin and elevation range from 1,450 to 1,900 meters

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

. It was declared an ''Área Natural Única'' (Unique Natural Area) in 1998.

Geography

The climate is warm and predominantly dry. The average temperature is 22 °C and the average yearly rainfall is 870 mm, with a dry season from January to March. The

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transp ...

is twice that of precipitation, causing a water deficit. There are two types of plant life in the area, a dry forest with species such as ''

Stachytarpheta ''Stachytarpheta'' is a plant genus in the verbena family ( Verbenaceae). The flowers are rich in nectar and popular with many butterflies, such as the South Asian crimson rose ''Pachliopta hector'', the crimson rose, is a large swallo ...

mutabilis'', ''

Psidium ''Psidium'' is a genus of trees and shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. It is native to warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere ( Mexico, Central and South America, the West Indies the Galápagos islands). Taxonomy This genus was described f ...

guineense'', '' Erythroxylum lucidum'' and ''

Dodonaea viscosa ''Dodonaea viscosa'', also known as the broadleaf hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the '' Dodonaea'' (hopbush) genus that has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, sout ...

'' and a sub-Andean forest covered in fog most time of the year with species such as Andean oak and horse-chestnut. The fauna of the region is rich in species, many of them endemic and represented only by small populations which indicates a fragile ecosystem. Birds are the most numerous group of vertebrates, with 58 species in 50 different genus and 22 families. Hunting,

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

, the introduction of agriculture and domestic animals have limited the number of species and number of individuals per species. Mammals found in the area include the

tapeti The common tapeti (''Sylvilagus brasiliensis''), also known as the Brazilian cottontail, forest cottontail, or (formerly) simply tapeti is a species of cottontail rabbit. It is small to medium-sized with a small, dark tail, short hind feet, and s ...

jaguarundi The jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi'') is a wild cat native to the Americas. Its range extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. The jaguarundi is a medium-size ...

crab-eating fox The crab-eating fox (''Cerdocyon thous''), also known as the forest fox, wood fox, bushdog (not to be confused with the bush dog) or maikong, is an extant species of medium-sized canid endemic to the central part of South America since at least ...

, and

common opossum The common opossum (''Didelphis marsupialis''), also called the southern or black-eared opossum or gambá, and sometimes called a possum, is a marsupial species living from the northeast of Mexico to Bolivia (reaching the coast of the South Paci ...

Fauna

References

Bibliography

External links

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The park's page at Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia
{{authority control National parks of Colombia Protected areas established in 1988 Geography of Norte de Santander Department Tourist attractions in Norte de Santander Department