The Sierra del Burro (also called Serranías del Burro) is the northernmost finger of the

Sierra Madre Oriental The Sierra Madre Oriental () is a mountain range in northeastern Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that f ...

in the state of

Coahuila Coahuila (), formally Coahuila de Zaragoza (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza), is one of the 32 states of Mexico. Coahuila borders the Mexican states of N ...

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 Guatema ...

. The Sierra begins at the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

near

Big Bend National Park Big Bend National Park is an American national park located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States, and was named after ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and extends southeast for about , reaching a maximum elevation of .

Geography

The Sierra del Burro increases in altitude and width as it goes from north to south. At its northernmost point near the Rio Grande, the Sierra is about wide and has a maximum elevation of about . At its southernmost extremity, about 28’ 30° North latitude, it reaches a width of more than and a maximum altitude of near where it merges with the

Sierra del Carmen The Sierra del Carmen, also called the Sierra Maderas del Carmen, is a northern finger of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. The Sierra begins at the Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park and extends southeast for about , r ...

and becomes known as the Sierra Madre Oriental. The

Rio San Rodrigo The Río San Rodrigo is a stream in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, and is a tributary of the Rio Grande. The Rio San Rodrigo enters the Rio Grande (''Rio Bravo del Norte'' in Mexico) at Rio Grande river kilometer 834, at El Moral, Coahuila and abo ...

is the largest river originating in the Sierra del Burro. The drainage from the Sierra is to the Rio Grande. The Sierra is located in the

Chihuahua Desert 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 ...

, and most of the vegetation is arid or semi-arid desert scrub, including

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

and

Tamaulipan matorral The Tamaulipan matorral is an ecoregion in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental range in northeastern Mexico. It is a transitional ecoregion between the Tamaulipan mezquital and the Sierra Madr ...

. Oak forests are found, mostly at elevations of more than . Among the fauna are the

American black bear The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...

, an endangered species in Mexico, except for the Sierra del Burro where it is still found in fair numbers, but considered at risk.

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

are also found in the Sierra. Due to its proximity the flora and fauna have similarities to that of the Big Bend region of Texas. The climate is arid to semi-arid.

Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

in the Sierra ranges from . Most precipitation occurs in the summer, but notably vigorous convection occurs in April and May. The Sierra del Burro and an area extending slightly southward for decades has been recognized by meteorologists using

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

and

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

data as a region of consistent and intense

supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (s ...

activity,

orographically Orography is the study of the topographic relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain. Orography (also known as ''oreography'', ''orology'' or ''oreology'') falls within the broader discip ...

influenced by the Sierra, and annually producing significant

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es and

hail Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fal ...

. Due to the rugged terrain, aridity, and inhospitable environment, there are no towns or any paved roads in the Sierra. The sparse population mostly inhabits large ranches.

Conservation

The Sierra del Burro is outside the boundaries of the binational El Carmen-Big Bend Conservation Corridor Initiative, but local ranchers, fearing fragmentation of their lands, have formed a group called CONECO to preserve their ranching heritage and promote wildlife and habitat preservation. The group now has about protected. National and international conservation groups see CONECO as a model for private land conservation in Mexico.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Landforms of Coahuila Sierra Madre Oriental Mountain ranges of Mexico