Bosque de Fray Jorge national park (Spanish Parque Nacional Bosque de Fray Jorge) lies in the Limarí Province, Coquimbo Region, Chile. It is a UNESCO Biosphere reserve.

Geography

The national park is approximately 100 km directly south of La Serena on the Pacific Ocean, as well as approximately 30 km to the west of Ovalle. It lies close to the Atacama Desert, in the Cordillera de Talinay, which is part of the Chilean Coastal Range. On the south, the park is bordered by the Limarí River.

The park covers an area of 100 km², but the forests cover only 4% of its surface. The national park is known for having the northernmost Valdivian temperate rain forests. The coastal fog (Spanish: Camanchaca) hangs on the mountain-slopes and moistens subtropical vegetation, allowing the hydrophilic forests to survive despite of being surrounded of semiarid scrublands, with rainfall no more than 113 mm annually. Actually, 113mm is the average rainfall. The forest is a vestigial survival of the last glacial period.

Typical plants of the national park include:

• Peruvian pepper Schinus latifolius
• Epiphyte
• Azara celastrina
• Lithraea venenosa
• Porlieria chilensis
• Olivillos (Aextoxicon punctatum)
• Sarmienta scandens
• Griselinia scandens

The park also includes a large number of smaller animals, as Degu, Chinchilla and foxes. Many different kinds of birds live in the park, such as the Chilean Tinamou (Nothoprocta perdicaria) and the Long-tailed Meadowlark (Sturnella loyca).

History

The Bosque de Fray Jorge national park was created in 1941 and is administered by the Chilean forest authority CONAF. UNESCO incorporated the national park as a biosphere reservation in 1977.

References

• Translation from the Spanish and German Wikipedia sites (see interwiki links).

External links

• Fray Jorge Biosphere Reserve