El mono Hernández Cork Forest Flora and Fauna Sanctuary

The "El mono Hernández" Cork Forest Flora and Fauna Sanctuary (Spanish: Santuario de Fauna y Flora El Corchal "El mono Hernández") is a natural monument located in the Sucre and Bolívar Departments on the coast of the Caribbean Region of Colombia.

Santuario de Fauna y Flora El Corchal "El mono Hernández"
"El mono Hernández" Cork Forest Flora and Fauna Sanctuary
IUCN category III (natural monument or feature)
Coordinates10°3′0″N 75°20′0″W
Area38.5 km2 (14.9 sq mi)
Established5 August 2002
Governing bodySINAP

The park is named in honor of Colombian naturalist Jorge Ignacio "El Mono" Hernández-Camacho (1935–2001), one of the founders of Colombia's National Natural Park System.[1]

Climate

Average temperature is 28 °C and yearly rainfall is 1100 mm with the largest precipitation in April and November. The warmest months are June and July, and the driest period is between December and April.[2]

Flora and fauna

Mangrove and cork swamp forests are protected within the area. Mangroves covers about half of the area, located in the western and northern parts of the sanctuary.[2][3] The mangroves are dominated by five species, red mangrove, black mangrove, white mangrove, buttonwood and neotropical mangrove.[2] The swamps is the only place in the Colombian Caribbean Region where pure corchales, "cork" forests, grow, dominated by Pterocarpus officinalis, and with a total area of 401 hectares.[3]

It is home to 153 species of birds,[4] the great diversity is due to the quantity of food produced in the surrounding waters.[2] A number of species feed on the marsh vegetation, including the endangered West Indian manatee. Other noteworthy animals are the jaguar, brown caiman[2] and howler monkey.[5]

Footnotes
  1. Villegas & Sesana 2007, p. 109
  2. Villegas & Sesana 2007, p. 110
  3. "Santuario de Flora y Fauna El Corchal "El Mono Hernández"" (in Spanish). Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
  4. "Naturaleza y Ciencia del Santuario de Flora y Fauna El Corchal "El Mono Hernández"" (in Spanish). Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
  5. Woods 2008, p. 53

References
  • Villegas, Benjamin; Sesana, Laura (2007), Colombia Natural Parks, Villegas Asociados, ISBN 978-958-8156-87-3.
  • Woods, Sarah (2008), Colombia, Bradt Travel Guides, ISBN 978-1-84162-242-2.
  • Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2009), The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals, JHU Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9.
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