The Serra das Confusões National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra das Confusões) 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 ...

in the state of

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

, Brazil.

Geography

The Serra das Confusões National Park is in the municipalities of Alvorada do Gurguéia, Brejo do Piauí, Bom Jesus, Canto do Buriti,

Caracol Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau, ...

, Cristino Castro, Guaribas, Jurema,

Santa Luz Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

and

Tamboril do Piauí Tamboril do Piauí is a municipality in the state of Piauí in the Northeast region of Brazil. The municipality contains part of the Serra das Confusões National Park, created in 1998, which protects an area of the Caatinga biome. The municip ...

in the state of Piauí. It has an area of .

Geomorphology

The park lies in the Piauí-Maranhão sedimentary basin plateau, a section of the

Parnaíba basin The Parnaíba Basin (Portuguese: ''Bacia do Parnaíba'') is a large cratonic sedimentary basin located in the North and Northeast portion of Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the ...

that has been uplifted. Bedrock geology is mostly sandstone and shale ranging from Devonian to Triassic origin. The terrain is relatively flat, containing sandstone plateaus and adjacent depressions of the Parnaíba depression. Altitudes range from with an average altitude of . The lower portions are more rugged, with rocky outcrops holding small caves and springs of water. The intermittent Itaueira River rises in the park.

Climate

Average annual rainfall is . Temperatures range from with an average of .

Ecology

The park is in the

Caatinga Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...

biome. There are rainforest trees in the lower areas reaching in height. Higher up the trees average about . The wetter valleys hold

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s and

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s with occasional giant trees. 13 of the 18 endemic Caatinga species of fauna have been identified. Surveys have found three new species of

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

, one new

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

and one new

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

. Protected species in the park include the

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 th ...

(''Panthera onca''),

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 ...

(''Puma concolor''),

giant armadillo The giant armadillo (''Priodontes maximus''), colloquially ''tatu-canastra'', ''tatou'', ''ocarro'' or ''tatú carreta'', is the largest living species of armadillo (although their extinct relatives, the Glyptodontidae, glyptodonts, were much l ...

(''Priodontes maximus''),

Brazilian three-banded armadillo The Brazilian three-banded armadillo (''Tolypeutes tricinctus'') is an armadillo species endemic to eastern Brazil, where it is known as (, lit. ball armadillo). It is one of only two species of armadillo that can roll into a ball (the other is ...

(''Tolypeutes tricinctus''),

white-browed guan The white-browed guan (''Penelope jacucaca'') is a species of bird in the chachalaca, guan, and curassow family Cracidae. It is endemic to northeastern Brazil. Taxonomy and systematics The white-browed guan has at times been considered conspe ...

(''Penelope jacucaca'') and bearded bellbird (''Procnias averano'').

Administrative history

The Serra das Confusões National Park was created by federal decree on 2 October 1998, and is administered by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

. The park is classed as

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

II (national park). The objective is to preserve a natural ecosystem of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty, and to support scientific research, environmental education and interpretation, outdoors recreation and ecotourism. The

Capivara-Confusões Ecological Corridor The Capivara-Confusões Ecological Corridor ( pt, Corredor Ecológico Capivara-Confusões) is an ecological corridor in the caatinga biome of the state of Piauí in northeast Brazil. Location The Capivara-Confusões Ecological Corridor links th ...

, created in 2006, links the park to the

Serra da Capivara National Park Serra da Capivara National Park (Portuguese: ''Parque Nacional Serra da Capivara'', , locally ) is a national park in the Northeastern region of Brazil. The area has many prehistoric paintings. The name of the mountain range that defines the p ...

Gallery

File:Confusões.jpg File:Serra das Confusões 01.jpg File:Parque Nacional da Serra das Confusões - 03.jpg File:Serra das Confusões - Caracol.jpg File:Construções rochosas , caracol.jpg

Notes

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serra das Confusoes National Park 1998 establishments in Brazil National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Piauí Caatinga