San Guillermo National Park ( es, Parque Nacional San Guillermo) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

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 ...

, in the

Iglesia Department Iglesia is a department of the province of San Juan Province (Argentina), San Juan, Argentina. It is located in the northwest mountainous corner of this province with substantial vegetation. Iglesia is one of the most visited departments in the pr ...

of San Juan Province. It was established in 1998 and is part of the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve. Elevations in the biosphere range from to . Vegetation in the National Park and biosphere consists of barren desert, grasslands, and a few wetlands, all located in the high, arid

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. The animals include

vicuña The vicuña (''Lama vicugna'') or vicuna (both , very rarely spelled ''vicugna'', its former genus name) is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco, which live ...

guanaco The guanaco (; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids, the other being the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The guanaco g ...

, culpeo fox,

Andean mountain cat The Andean mountain cat (''Leopardus jacobita'') is a small wild cat native to the high Andes that has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List because fewer than 1,500 individuals are thought to exist in the wild. It is traditionally cons ...

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

, and

Andean condor The Andean condor (''Vultur gryphus'') is a giant South American Cathartid vulture and is the only member of the genus ''Vultur''. Found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, the Andean condor is the larg ...

The park

The San Guillermo National Park is located in the northern part of

San Juan Province, Argentina San Juan Province () is a province of Argentina, located in the western part of the country. Neighbouring provinces are, moving clockwise from the north, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza. It borders with Chile to the west. The province has an a ...

near the town of Rodeo. The park was established on January 13, 1999. It has an area of 166,000 hectares in the high Andes, and includes

puna grassland The puna grassland ecoregion, of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru,Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Perú; Las Ocho ...

and mountain summits. It was originally set up as a provincial reserve in 1972 and became the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve in 1980. Its main objective is to preserve the natural habitat of vicuñas, and at the same time protect the other plants and animals of this mountain area.

Ecology

The biosphere has an area of . The core area is the National Park and consists of arid mountain ranges with no permanent water courses. The soils are mostly rocky and coarse, but some areas with favorable conditions, mostly above , support

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

grassland. The flora consists of scattered dwarf shrubs, interspersed with coarse grasses and herbaceous plants, and much bare ground. The shrubs include '' Adesmia'', '' Patrastrephia'', '' Fabiana'', ''

Azorella ''Azorella'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to South America, New Zealand, southeastern Australia, and the islands of the Southern Ocean. They are low-growing dwarf mat-forming plants growing in high exposure on mo ...

'' and ''

Ephedra (plant) ''Ephedra'' is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs. The various species of ''Ephedra'' are widespread in many arid regions of the world, ranging across southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern ...

''. Grasses present include ''

Stipa ''Stipa'' is a genus of around 300 large perennial hermaphroditic grasses collectively known as feather grass, needle grass, and spear grass. They are placed in the subfamily Pooideae and the tribe Stipeae, which also contains many species form ...

'', ''

Calamagrostis ''Calamagrostis'' (reed grass or smallweed) is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae, with about 260 species that occur mainly in temperate regions of the globe. Towards equatorial latitudes, species of ''Calamagrostis'' general ...

'' and ''

Festuca ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

'' and flowering plants include ''

Astragalus ''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to tempe ...

'', ''

Tropaeolum ''Tropaeolum'' , commonly known as nasturtium (; literally "nose-twister" or "nose-tweaker"), is a genus of roughly 80 species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. It was named by Carl Linnaeus in his book ''Species Plantarum'' ...

'', ''

Phacelia ''Phacelia'' (phacelia, scorpionweed, heliotrope) is a genus of about 200 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the borage family, native to North and South America. California is particularly rich in species with over 90 recorded ...

'' and ''

Glandularia ''Glandularia'', common name mock vervain or mock verbena, is a genus of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Verbenaceae. They are native to the Americas. Description These plants, like their relatives the vervains ( ...

''.

The main reason for setting up the biosphere reserve was to protect vicuñas. Also present in the reserve are the

, the culpeo fox, the

, the

southern viscacha The southern viscacha (''Lagidium viscacia'') is a species of viscacha, a rodent in the family Chinchillidae found in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. It is a colonial animal living in small groups in rocky mountain areas. It has long ears an ...

, the

short-tailed chinchilla The short-tailed chinchilla (''Chinchilla chinchilla)'' is a small rodent part of the Chinchillidae family and is classified as an endangered species by the IUCN. Originating in South America, the chinchilla is part of the genus ''Chinchilla'', whic ...

, the

Darwin's rhea Darwin's rhea or the lesser rhea (''Rhea pennata'') is a large flightless bird, the smaller of the two extant species of rheas. It is found in the Altiplano and Patagonia in South America. Description The lesser rhea stands at tall. Length ...

, various

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s and

geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...

, and the

Research

A research project involves fitting cougars, the top predator in the park, with GPS radio collars and tracking their movements. Simultaneously vicuñas, one of their main prey animals, are being fitted with collars to monitor their behaviour. It has been found that in areas of the park with plenty of cover, such as canyons and wetlands, the vicuñas are much more alert to danger and consequently spend less time feeding than they do on open plains. This alters the composition of the plant species present with a resulting increase in

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s and in

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 ...

. There are plans to fit some condors with collars to find out to what extent they benefit from an increase in the frequency of vicuña kills.

References

{{authority control National parks of Argentina Protected areas established in 1998 Protected areas of San Juan Province, Argentina High Monte 1998 establishments in Argentina