Área Costera Protegida Punta Curiñanco is a natural reserve from the city of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The park has an area of on the headland of Punta Curiñanco (Curiñanco Point) at just at the northern end of Curiñanco beach and village and on the western side of the

Valdivian Coast Range The Cordillera de Oncol (sometimes called Valdivian Coast Range) is a mountain range, located along the Pacific coast in southern Chile. It is part of the Chilean Coast Range System (''Cordillera de la Costa''). It was named for the city of Valdiv ...

. Punta Curiñanco covers area that includes different types of

Valdivian temperate rain forest The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainfores ...

as well as coastal shrublands, wetlands and sea-side rocks.

Flora and fauna

Punta Curiñanco is vegetated by a coastal association of Valdivian forest. Among the tree species that can be found are Aextoxicon punctatum (Olivillo), Luma apiculata (Arrayán), Eucryphia cordifolia (Ulmo), Persea lingue (Lingue), Drimys winteri (Canelo), Embothrium coccineum (Notro), Amomyrtus meli (Meli) and Lomatia ferruginea (Romerillo). The olivillos of Punta Curiñanco form pure forests. As for mammals, pumas, pudús, chungungos, chilla foxes, guiñas, and sea lions are known to be present in the protected area. Some of the birds that have been observed in the reserve are the Cinclodes nigrofumosus (Coastal Churrete), the Elaenia albiceps (Fío-Fío), the Phalacrocorax gaimardi (Cormorant Lile) and the Buteo polyosoma (Aguilucho).

References

Protected areas of Los Ríos Region Coasts of Los Ríos Region Valdivian temperate forests Private protected areas of Chile {{LosRíos-geo-stub