The Tamá National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Tamá) 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 ...
located in the
Tamá Massif
The Tamá Massif ( es, Macizo del Tamá) is a group of mountains on the border between Colombia and Venezuela to the south of Lake Maracaibo.
It contains evergreen rainforest and cloud forest at the lower levels, and páramos (high moors) at the ...
of the
Andean Region of Colombia
The Andean region, located in central Colombia, is the most populated natural region of Colombia. With many mountains, the Andes contain most of the country's urban centers.Toledo and Herrán, in the department of
Norte de Santander
North Santander (Spanish: Norte de Santander) () is a department of Northeastern Colombia. It is in the north of the country, bordering Venezuela. Its capital is Cúcuta, one of the country's major cities.
North Santander is bordered by Venez ...
, in the northeastern part of the
Eastern Ranges
The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition.
The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...
of the Colombian
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 ...
. One of the main attractions of the park is a
waterfall
A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
Táchira
Táchira State ( es, Estado Táchira, ) is one of the 24 states of Venezuela. The state capital is San Cristóbal.
Táchira State covers a total surface area of and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,168,908. At the end of the 19t ...
and
Apure
Apure State ( es, Estado Apure, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations pronounced by the colonial author ...
, together they form a larger protected area with an additional . On the Colombian side, (99%) of the park is located in Toledo and in Herrán. It was established on 6 June 1977 for conservational, scientific and recreational reasons.
The altitude varies between
above mean sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
, with the majority of the park located higher than . The average temperature is between .
Flora and fauna
The forests are included in the
Venezuelan Andes montane forests
The Venezuelan Andes montane forests (NT0175) is an ecoregion in the northern arm of the Andes in Venezuela.
It contains montane and cloud forests, reaching up to the high-level Cordillera de Merida páramo high moor ecoregion.
The forests are home ...
ecoregion, which also covers the Venezuelan Andean cordillera.
Tamá has four types of natural environments: tropical rainforest, sub-Andean forest, Andean forest and
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 narrower ...
. Notable flora include: ''
Weinmannia pubescens
''Weinmannia'' is a genus of trees and shrubs in the family Cunoniaceae. It is the largest genus of the family with about 150 species. It is also the most widespread genus, occurring in Central and South America including the Caribbean, Madagasc ...
Espeletia
''Espeletia'', commonly known as 'frailejones' ("big monks"), is a genus of perennial subshrubs, in the family Asteraceae. The genus, which is native mainly to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, was first formally described in 1808. The genus was n ...
uribei'' which grows higher than . Palms prosper in the lower-altitudes, and
moss
Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...
of the genus ''
Sphagnum
''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...
'' grows in the swamps.
The fauna is varied, notable mammals found in the area include: spectacled bear,
opossum
Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 93 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered North ...
,
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...
,
mountain lion
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. I ...
and
anteater
Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with ...
. Notable birds include:
oilbird
The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornith ...
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the Páramo de Tamá.
Hydrography
The water resources generated in the Tamá National Park are of interest for the economic and social development of the departments of Norte de Santander and Arauca in Colombia and the states of Táchira and Apure in Venezuela.
The hydrographic network of the Tamá National Natural Park, which drains towards the watershed of the
basin (Táchira river that collects water from the Orocué Creek, La Pedrera, La Colorada and Agua Blanca) and the watershed of the
Orinoco
The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...
basin (the river Oirá, which serves as the boundary between the two countries from close to its source up to the milestone of the Garganta, receives affluents such as the Quebrada la Conquista, Río Oeste, Río Verde, Río San José, Quebrada la Garganta). In the western sector of the Park, important rivers and streams are born, such as the Jordan River, Talco River, and San Lorenzo River, which flow into the Margua River and finally into the Orinoco Basin.
The Tamá National Park water complex benefits the communities in agricultural activities and in the supply of water for the communal and municipal
aqueducts
Aqueduct may refer to:
Structures
*Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley
*Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...
, and supplies the demand of more than 2,000,000 inhabitants located in territories of the states of Apure and Táchira in Venezuela and of the departments of Norte de Santander, Boyacá and Arauca in Colombia.