Sangay National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Sangay) is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

located in the

Morona Santiago Morona Santiago () is a province in Ecuador. The province was established on February 24, 1954. The capital is Macas. Economy The provincial economy is industrially unexploited to its potential due to poor means of transportation. Its economy ...

, Chimborazo, Tungurahua, Cañar and Azuay provinces of

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

. The park contains two active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

es ( Tungurahua and Sangay), one extinct volcano El Altar (Kapak Urku). Protecting a range of elevations from 900 to 5319 meters above sea level, Sangay National Park contains a wide variety of habitats, including

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s, volcanic landscapes, tropical

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

cloud forests A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level clo ...

, wetlands, grasslands, and one of the largest regions of

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrowe ...

(high elevation moorlands) in Ecuador. 327 lakes feed into a vast wetland system covering 31.5 square kilometers. Because of its complex ecology and geology, as well as its outstanding biodiversity, the park has been listed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

since 1983. In 1992, it was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to illegal

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

, extensive

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and ot ...

, unplanned road construction and encroachment of the park's perimeter. It was removed from the UNESCO list of endangered sites in 2005.

Biodiversity

Due to the variety of habitats found within the park, the fertile volcanic soil, and the relatively unaltered landscape, Sangay National Park preserves an exceptional number of native species. Over 3,000 flowering plant species have been documented within the park, in addition to more than 430 bird, 107 mammal, 33 amphibian, 14 reptile, and 17 fish species. The National Park is an important refuge for rare species of the

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 ...

, like the mountain tapir and spectacled bear. The park is a vital stronghold for the endangered mountain tapir in particular. In the forests below live spectacled bears, giant otter,

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 ...

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 southwe ...

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal cat, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted illegally for the wild ...

Brazilian tapir The South American tapir (''Tapirus terrestris''), also commonly called the Brazilian tapir (from the Tupi ''tapi'ira''), the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, the ''anta'' ( Portuguese), and ''la sachavaca'' (literally "bushc ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

(''Odocoileus virginianus ustus''), little red brocket deer and Northern pudu. The

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

and pampas cat have been recorded in the park as well. ''

Caenolestes sangay The eastern caenolestid (''Caenolestes sangay'') is a shrew opossum found on the eastern slopes of the Andes in southern Ecuador. Etymology The origin of the genus name (''Caenolestes'') drives from the Greek words ''kainos'' ("new") and ''lest ...

'', a species of shrew opossum, was originally described in 2013 from specimens collected from Sangay National Park. Over 400 bird species inhabit the Park, and it has been recognised as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Inte ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

. Notable bird species resident to the park include the

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 ...

and

Andean Cock-of-the-rock The Andean cock-of-the-rock (''Rupicola peruvianus''), also known as ''tunki'' (Quechua), is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests in South America. It is widely regarded as the national bird of Peru. It ha ...

. In 2016, a new frog species in the genus ''

Pristimantis ''Pristimantis'' is a very large genus of frogs distributed in the southern Caribbean islands ( Lesser Antilles) and in Central and South America from Honduras to northern Argentina and southern Brazil. With 596 described species (as of October ...

'' (''Pristimantis tinguichaca'') was described from the park's

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

Gallery

File:19991102 Tung large.jpg, Eruption of the Tungurahua in 1999 File:Sangay peak.jpg, Aerial view of Sangay File:Sangay2.jpg, Sangay

References

External links

http://logronoturismo.com/

Sangay National Park on UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Jean-Claude Petit Butterflies of Sangay National Park

{{authority control National parks of Ecuador World Heritage Sites in Ecuador Protected areas established in 1979 Geography of Chimborazo Province Geography of Tungurahua Province Geography of Morona-Santiago Province Tourist attractions in Chimborazo Province Tourist attractions in Tungurahua Province Tourist attractions in Morona-Santiago Province World Heritage Sites in Danger Important Bird Areas of Ecuador

Biodiversity

Gallery

See also

References

External links