The Staaten River National Park is a national park in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia, 1,640 km northwest of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. It receives its name from the

Staaten River The Staaten River is a river in northern Queensland, Australia, rising in the Great Dividing Range and flowing northwest into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location and features The river rises of the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range appr ...

which flows through the park.

Environment

The park encompasses an extensive section of the least modified tropical savannas in Queensland. The vegetation is

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

dissected by

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

streams with a small number of permanent or semi-permanent waterholes. It has few exotic

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

s or introduced animals.BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Staaten River. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/10/2011.

Important Bird Area

The park has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a large population of up to a thousand

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

golden-shouldered parrot The golden-shouldered parrot (''Psephotellus chrysopterygius''), also known as the alwal, is a rare bird of southern Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia. A small parrot related to the more common red-rumped parrot (''Psephotus haematon ...

Feral pig The feral pig is a domestic pig which has gone feral, meaning it lives in the wild. They are found mostly in the Americas and Australia. Razorback and wild hog are Americanisms applied to feral pigs or boar-pig hybrids. Definition A feral ...

s destroy the parrots' nesting mounds and reduce the bird's food source. When conditions allow the pigs population to grow significantly the animal is culled by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. It also supports populations of

Australian bustard The Australian bustard (''Ardeotis australis'') is a large ground dwelling bird which is common in grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It stands at about high, and its wingspan is ...

bush stone-curlew The bush stone-curlew or bush thick-knee, also known as the Iben bird (''Burhinus grallarius'', obsolete name ''Burhinus magnirostris'') is a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia. Its favoured habitat is open plains and woodlands, whe ...

s, black-throated and masked finches, varied lorikeets, and yellow-tinted, banded,

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...

and bar-breasted honeyeaters.

References

Carpentaria tropical savanna Important Bird Areas of Queensland National parks of Far North Queensland Protected areas established in 1977 1977 establishments in Australia {{FarNorthQueensland-geo-stub

Environment

Important Bird Area

See also

References