Serra Geral National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra Geral) is a national park in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Location

Serra Geral National Park is in the Atlantic Forest biome. It covers . The park was created by decree 531 of 21 May 1992, and is administered by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

. The park covers parts of the municipalities of Cambará do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul and of Jacinto Machado and

Praia Grande Praia Grande () is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 330,845 (2020 est.) in an area of 149.25 km². Population history History Although t ...

in Santa Catarina. It is made up of two separate sections adjacent to Aparados da Serra National Park.Duke University ParksWatch: Serra Geral NP - Summary
retrieved 1 July 2011

Environment

The Campos Gerais plateau region has a gently undulating topography with heights ranging from above sea level. The park includes part of the southeast of the plateau and the escarpment between this plateau and the coastal plain. Altitudes range from above sea level. Average annual rainfall is . Temperatures range from , with an average of . Vegetation includes dry meadows, peat fields, cloud forests, mixed rainforests, dense submontane and montane rainforests, and lowland rainforests. There is a wide variety of endemic species of flora. Endemic fauna include '' Elachistocleis erythrogaster, Melanophryniscus cambaraensis, Thoropa saxatilis'', black-and-white monjita (''Xolmis dominicanus''), '' Xanthopsar flavus, Scytalopus iraiensis, Limnornis rectirostris'', and '' Amazona pretrei''.

Conservation

The park is classified as

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is par ...

II (national park). It has the objectives of preserving natural ecosystems of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty, enabling scientific research, environmental education, outdoor recreation, and eco-tourism. Protected species in the park include cougar (''Puma concolor''),

oncilla The oncilla (''Leopardus tigrinus''), also known as the northern tiger cat, little spotted cat, and tigrillo, is a small spotted cat ranging from Central America to central Brazil. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and the popul ...

(''Leopardus tigrinus''),

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 wildlif ...

(''Leopardus wiedii''), vinaceous-breasted amazon (''Amazona vinacea''),

red-spectacled amazon The red-spectacled amazon (''Amazona pretrei'') is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowla ...

(''Amazona pretrei''),

Chaco eagle The Chaco eagle (''Buteogallus coronatus'') or crowned solitary eagle, is an endangered bird of prey from eastern and central South America. Typically it is known simply as the crowned eagle which leads to potential confusion with the African '' ...

(''Buteogallus coronatus''), the toad '' Melanophryniscus macrogranulosus'', and the fish '' Mimagoniates rheocharis''. File:Parque Serra Geral 05.JPG File:Cachoeira do tigre preto.jpg, Tigre preto waterfall File:Aparados Da Serra - Cânion Itaimbezinho.JPG, Itaimbezinho canyon

Notes

Sources

* * {{authority control 1992 establishments in Brazil National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Rio Grande do Sul Protected areas of Santa Catarina (state)