The Rio Bavispe or Bavispe River is a river in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

which flows briefly north then mainly south by southwest until it joins with the

Aros River The Aros River is a river of Mexico. See also *List of rivers of Mexico This is a list of rivers of Mexico, listed from north to south. There are 246 rivers on this list. Alternate names for rivers are given in parentheses. Rivers flowing into ...

to become the

Yaqui River The Yaqui River (Río Yaqui in Spanish) (Hiak Vatwe in the Yaqui or Yoreme language) is a river in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It was formerly known as the Rio del Norte. Being the largest river system in the state of Sonora, the ...

, eventually joining the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

History

Historically, the Rio Bavispe valley was the scene of many Apache raids and their skirmishes with the Mexican military. Missionaries settled the upper Bavispe River in the early 1600s.

Watershed

The Bavispe River comprises a large part of the northern Yaqui River watershed. The mainstem of the Bavispe starts in the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American ...

right on the border of

Chihuahua Chihuahua may refer to: Places *Chihuahua (state), a Mexican state **Chihuahua (dog), a breed of dog named after the state **Chihuahua cheese, a type of cheese originating in the state **Chihuahua City, the capital city of the state **Chihuahua Mun ...

, southeast of Huachinera, Sonora, and is formed by the confluence of three rivers at aptly named

Três Rios Três Rios (, ) is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. As of 2020 its population was an estimated 82,142 inhabitants, and its area is around . The current mayor of Três Rios is Joacir Barbaglio Pereira (known as Jo ...

. The Rio Bavispe flows northwest through mountainous country until the upper end of the wide Bavispe Valley. This valley trends northward until making a 180 degree curve west around the

Sierra del Tigre Sierra del Tigre is a mountain range in northeastern Sonora, Mexico at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The region contains sky island mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands, some separated from the Sierra Madre Oc ...

. At the north end of the Sierra del Tigre, the Bavispe is joined at Morelos, Sonora by the waters of the

Rio San Bernardino The Rio San Bernardino, or San Bernardino River, begins in extreme southeastern Cochise County, Arizona, and is a tributary of the Bavispe River, in Sonora, Mexico. Watershed The Rio San Bernardino has two major tributaries, the Rio de Agua Pr ...

(which drain the

San Bernardino Valley The San Bernardino Valley ( es, Valle de San Bernardino) is a valley in Southern California located at the south base of the Transverse Ranges. It is bordered on the north by the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains; ...

) whose beginnings are in extreme southeast

Cochise County, Arizona Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city ...

. From this confluence the Rio Bavispe turns south by southwest and enters the La Angostura Reservoir (

Lázaro Cárdenas Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940. Born in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, to a working-class family, Cárdenas joined the Me ...

Dam), then continues 80 miles further south until it joins with the larger Rio Aros to form the

. The Yaqui River enters the

at the port city of

Guaymas, Sonora Guaymas () is a city in Guaymas Municipality, in the southwest part of the state of Sonora, in northwestern Mexico. The city is south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and from the U.S. border. The municipality is located on the Gulf of Cal ...

Ecology

The river hosts an assemblage of native fishes: Yaqui trout, three suckers (Bavispe, Rio Grande, and Yaqui), Mexican stoneroller, roundtail chub, Yaqui catfish, beautiful shiner and longfin dace. Non-native fish include predatory black and yellow bullhead (''Ameiras melas'' and ''Ameiras natalis''). Important threatened or endangered mammals include the Sonoran pronghorn antelope (''Antilocapra americana sonoriensis''), Mexican gray wolf (''Canis lupus baileyi''),

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

(''Panthera onca''),

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southw ...

(''Leopardus pardalis''),

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-siz ...

(''Puma yagouaroundi''), and lesser long-nosed bat (''Leptonycteris yerbabuenae'').

North American beaver The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland and ...

(''Castor canadensis'') were historically native to the Rio Bavispe: Baird reported beavers in Canon de Guadalupe (at 5,000 ft, affluent of Rio Bavispe) in 1859, Mearns reported them in Canon de Guadalupe (at 5,000 ft, affluent of Rio Bavispe) in 1907, and Caire observed beaver activity north of Tasaviri (near San Miguelito just west of Morales, Sonora) on the Rio Bavispe mainstem in 1978. A 1999 survey found beaver sign at 14 different sites on the upper Bavispe River mainstem, associated with the presence of cottonwoods (''Populus fremontii'') and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist ...

s (''Salix exigua'').

References

*Atlas of Mexico, 1975 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_mexico/river_basins.jpg). *The Prentice Hall American World Atlas, 1984. *Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993. Rivers of Sonora {{Mexico-river-stub