Laguna Blanca National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Laguna Blanca) 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 west of the , close to the town of

Zapala Zapala is a city and touristic destination in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina with about 32,000 inhabitants according to the . The city is located at the geographic center of the province at the confluence of national and provincia ...

. The park around the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

was created in 1940 to protect the lagoon and particularly the population of

black-necked swan The black-necked swan (''Cygnus melancoryphus'') is a species of waterfowl in tribe Cygnini of subfamily Anserinae.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the bird ...

s (''Cygnus melancoryphus''). It has an area of 112.5 km². The lagoon is situated in the

Patagonian steppe The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in Argentina and is the 8th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 673,000 square kilometers (260,000 mi2). It is located primarily in Argentina and ...

, surrounded by hills and gorges. It has important aquatic

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

fauna, of several species and in great number. The lagoon used to host the largest known subpopulation of the

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 ...

Patagonia frog ('' Atelognathus patagonicus''), but this has been extirpated by introduced predatory fish; the species survives in isolated ponds in the buffer zone of the national park. Near the lagoon is the Salamanca cave, historically inhabited by humans, where rock paintings, typical of northern Patagonia, can be seen. Other

mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

and

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

human artifacts have been found in the park.

Climate

Mapa Laguna Blanca Provincia del Neuquen

The park has an

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ar ...

and windy climate with a large diurnal range. During summer, the mean temperature is with temperatures that can exceed during

heat waves A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...

. In winter, the mean temperature is with minimum temperatures reaching . Snowfall can occur during the winter months. Rainfall is low, averaging between per year, most of it concentrated in winter.

References

{{authority control Biosphere reserves of Argentina National parks of Argentina Protected areas of Neuquén Province Protected areas established in 1940 Ramsar sites in Argentina