Laguna Tortuguero Natural Reserve is a natural

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located between the municipalities of

Vega Baja Vega Baja (, ) is a town and municipality located on the coast of north central Puerto Rico. It is north of Morovis, east of Manatí, and west of Vega Alta. Vega Baja is spread over 13 barrios. The population of the municipality was 54,414 at t ...

and Manatí in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. The lagoon is one of only two natural reservoirs in the island of

(the other being Joyuda Lagoon), and is home to an ample variety of species.

General information

Tortuguero Lagoon Nature Reserve is the only freshwater lagoon in

. It contains about 708 million gallons of water. The reserve was designated in 1979 through a program of Coastal Zone Management PR. It is located between the municipalities of

and Manatí. It covers approximately 2.43 km². It is divided into two main parts: in the east and northeast, the Laguna Grande ("Big Lagoon" in English), and in the south, the Laguna Rica. A swamp located northeast of the pond, El Cabo Caribe ("Cape Caribbean" in English), includes one of the most important areas of the reserve as a source of nesting and feeding waterflow ecosystem. Generally, Tortuguero is made up of swamps, marshes, soils of silica sand and hills. Although not a forest, its variety of rare endemic plants and flowers has earned it a place amongst the most important reserves in Puerto Rico, just after El Yunque,

Toro Negro State Forest Toro Negro State Forest (Spanish: ''Bosque Estatal de Toro Negro'') is one of the 21 forests that make up the public forests system in Puerto Rico. It is also Puerto Rico's highest cloud forest. It is in the Cordillera Central region of the is ...

and the Forest of Maricao.

Native, exotic and endemic species in the reserve

Native species: * Eels of the genus ''

Anguila Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territor ...

'' * Chad (''

Elops saurus The ladyfish or tenpounder (''Elops saurus'') is a species of fish in the genus ''Elops'', the only genus in the monotypic family Elopidae. Description Like other species in its genus, the ladyfish has a long, slender, rounded body covered wit ...

'') * Common snook (''

Centropomus undecimalis The common snook (''Centropomus undecimalis'') is a species of marine fish in the family Centropomidae of the order Perciformes. The common snook is also known as the sergeant fish or robalo. It was originally assigned to the sciaenid genus ...

'') * Big-eye scad mackerel or horse-eye jack ('' Caranx latus'') Endemic species: * Puerto Rican spindalis (''

Spindalis portoricensis The Puerto Rican spindalis (''Spindalis portoricensis'') is a bird endemic to the island of Puerto Rico, where it is commonly known as ''reina mora''. The species is widely distributed throughout the island and is an important part of the Puerto ...

'') * Puerto Rican oriole ('' Icterus portoricensis'') * Adelaide's warbler ('' Setophaga adelaidae'') Exotic species: * Caiman ('' Caiman crocodilus'') * Black seabream or chopa (''

Spondyliosoma cantharus The black seabream (''Spondyliosoma cantharus'') is a species of Sparidae fishes. They are recognisable by their oval compressed body and jaws containing 4-6 rows of slender teeth which are larger at the front. They are silvery in colour with blu ...

'') * Tilapia (''

Oreochromis urolepis The Wami tilapia (''Oreochromis urolepis'') or Rufiji tilapia is a species tilapiine cichlid that is native to Morogoro Region of Tanzania. It is an important food fish and has been introduced to several other countries, although most of these ...

'')

Flora

The flora of this reserve is the fourth most important in Puerto Rico. There are 717 species of plants. - 144 are rare and endangered - 56 live in fine white sands around the lagoon - 110 live in organic soils of swamps - 37 species are native to America All of the above are found exclusively on the Tortuguero Lagoon. There are seven species of insectivorous plants in the area of the lagoon. Two of these are in danger of extinction, which are ''

Drosera capillaris ''Drosera capillaris'', the pink or spathulate-leaved sundew (not to be confused with ''Drosera spatulata''), is a small carnivorous plant of the family Droseraceae in the genus ''Sundew, Drosera''. They are frequently found in wet pine flatwood ...

'' and '' Utricularia subulata clesitogama''. The rest is divided into: - 265 are indicators of wetlands - 132 tree species - 79 species of sedges - 78 herbs - 38 species of ferns The extremely rare tree ''

Schoepfia arenaria ''Schoepfia arenaria'' is an extremely rare species of hemiparasitic flowering plant in the Schoepfiaceae family. It grows as a small, multi-trunked tree. It is endemic to Puerto Rico, where it is found growing along the northern coast. A local S ...

'' was found to grow in the reserve in 1990. Less than 200 of these Puerto Rican

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 ...

trees are known to exist.

Fauna

The reserve provides an environment conducive to bird diversity. There have been 83 species of birds identified across the reserve. Of these, 30 are migratory and the rest are resident in Puerto Rico. Among the residents are the

Puerto Rican spindalis The Puerto Rican spindalis (''Spindalis portoricensis'') is a bird endemic to the island of Puerto Rico, where it is commonly known as ''reina mora''. The species is widely distributed throughout the island and is an important part of the Puerto ...

Puerto Rican oriole The Puerto Rican oriole (''Icterus portoricensis'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae, and genus ''Icterus'' or New World blackbirds. This species is a part of a subgroup of orioles (Clade A) that includes the North American orchard o ...

and

Adelaide's warbler Adelaide's warbler (''Setophaga adelaidae'') is a bird endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico belonging to the genus ''Setophaga'' of the family Parulidae. The species is named after Adelaide Swift, daughter of Robert Swift, the person who cap ...

. In aquatic ecosystems, birds such as

ruddy duck The ruddy duck (''Oxyura jamaicensis'') is a duck from North America and one of the stiff-tailed ducks. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek ''oxus'', "sharp", and ''oura'', "tail", and ''jamaicensis'' is "from Jamaica". Taxonomy The ru ...

and

Caribbean coot The American coot (''Fulica americana''), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family (biology), family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate or ...

and are generally abundant. As for fish, they are generally abundant but small. The lagoon is a shelter and breeding ground for females fish. There are 23 species of fish in the lagoon, among the native are

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

tarpon Tarpons are fish of the genus ''Megalops''. They are the only members of the family Megalopidae. Of the two species, one (''M. atlanticus'') is native to the Atlantic, and the other (''M. cyprinoides'') to the Indo-Pacific Oceans. Species an ...

snook Snook, Snooks, or Snoek may refer to: Fishes * Family Centropomidae (snooks) ** Common snook * Family Esocidae (pikes) ** '' Haplochromis insidiae'' ** Northern pike * Family Gempylidae (snake mackerels) ** Blacksail snake mackerel or black ...

and mackerel bigeye. Among those introduced are the black seabream, bass and tilapia. It also emphasizes the presence of

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

fish such as the "guppy" of the genus ''

Poecilia ''Poecilia'' is a genus of fishes in the family Poeciliidae of the order Cyprinodontiformes. These livebearers are native to fresh, brackish and salt water in the Americas, and some species in the genus are euryhaline. A few have adapted to livin ...

''.

References

External links

{{Portal, Puerto Rico
Laguna Tortuguero on PR-Frogui.com
Lakes of Puerto Rico Manatí, Puerto Rico