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Ñacuñán
Reservation is located 180 kilometres southeast of the
City of Mendoza, in the department of Santa Rosa. It
protects about 12600 hectares of native forest of carob trees.
It was declared a preservation area in 1961, being
incorporated into the global network of Biosphere
reservations (UNESCO) in 1986. Its name derives from the
language Pehuenche Neyku-ñan name of the last cacique of
Malargüe, an ally of San Martín, which means white eagle,
the name with which the country people refer to the
common eagle.
The region comprising the reservation sits at la
Travesía (plain area) in Tunuyán within the
Phyto geographic province of Monte and has many elements
from wetlands. A large number of scientists conducting
research on the flora, fauna, climate, and soil visit
this protected area.
For this reason, it has a biological station and a
meteorology station that permanently records data on the
rainfalls, temperature and wind. It is interesting to
note that Ñacuñán was the first protected area of
province of Mendoza, which is currently administered by
the Argentine Institute of Arid Zone Research.
The purpose for the creation of this reservation was to
protect the carob forest, which has been recovering
after an intensive period of logging since the beginning
of the 20th century until 1937. This tree was used as a
source of wood and coal to supply the railroad and the
city. Later on, the livestock breeding posed another
impact on the same ecosystem.
The Carob Forest Eco System.
This vegetation grows on sandy and clay soils that
determine two very different communities: carobs and
jarillales respectively. The first community takes its
name from the abundance of carob accompanied by chañares
in the arboreal substratum. The shrub substratum is
dominated by jarilla, llaullines, verbena áspera, zampa,
piquillín and atamisqui. The herbaceous substratum is
composed mostly by numerous species of grasses. The
jarillales themselves are poorer in the number of
species, though sometimes form a very dense grassland of
leaf pasture grass.
The fauna is very rich highlighting a wide variety of
birds. The abundance of carob determines that there is a
large number of species, considering that this tree
provides shelter, food and nesting sites. There are
gallitos copetones, monterita de collar, yal carbonero (endemic
species of the Central Andes), three species of woodpeckers,
picapalos, sietecuchillos, diucas, chingolos,
calandritas, canasteros. Among the mammals, the most
abundant are the cuises, piches and field mice. Other
herbivores are vizcachas, maras and the tuco-tuco. There
are gray foxes, ferrets, skunks, and wild cats from the
mountains and from scrublands.
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