Chaco National Park

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Chcaco National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Location:	Chaco Province, Argentina
Area:	150 km²
Established:	1954
Governing body:	Administración de Parques Nacionales

The Chaco National Park is a national park of Argentina, located in the province of Chaco. It has an area of 150 km². It was created in 1954 in order to protect a sample of the Eastern Chaco, composed mainly of warm lowlands, with an annual summer rainfall between 750 and 1,300 mm.

This park is a protected area for the quebracho trees. Forests of quebracho colorado chaqueño (Schinopsis balansae) were once located in the north of Santa Fe and the western half of Chaco, and had entered the northeast region of the province of Corrientes. Its strong wood and its abundant tannin caused it to be over-exploited for a century.

The area harbors several environments: scrubland, savanna, swamps, and small lakes. The scrubland is the habitat of the red quebracho, the white quebracho, the algarrobo, and the lapacho (all of these commercially valuable species). The fauna includes large predators such as pumas. In the lakes one finds yacarés (the local equivalent of alligators) and capibaras. Elsewhere there are armadillos, tapirs and viscachas, as well as birds (more than 340 species). The fauna also includes the carayá monkey.