page_title: Henri Pittier National Park
section_title: Biodiversity
hierarchical_section_title: Henri Pittier National Park / Ecology and Habitat / Biodiversity
caption_attribution_description: Español: Halcón peregrino (Falco peregrinus) cautivo en la Comunidad de Madrid, España.English: Captive peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) in the Community of Madrid, Spain.
context_page_description: Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela, originally created in 1937 under the name of Rancho Grande by decree of President Eleazar López Contreras. In 1953 the park was renamed in honor of Henri Pittier, a distinguished Swiss geographer, botanist and ethnologist, who arrived in Venezuela in 1917, classified more than 30,000 plants in the country and devoted many years studying the flora and fauna in the park.
  Henry Pittier National Park has the honor of having started the history of national parks of Venezuela. Its 107,800 hectares, located in the north of Aragua state, comprise most of the Araguan coast and mountainous area of Carabobo state. It also borders San Esteban National Park. Henri Pittier National Park is the largest among the national parks of the Venezuelan Coastal Range.
  The park consists of two geographic systems: a steep mountainous interior where there are more than 500 bird species and 22 endemic species and a coastal area with bays, beaches and resorts with huge tourism potential.
  There is a great diversity of flora and fauna. The park is an Important Bird Area. and is an Alliance for Zero Extinction site.
context_section_description: The park has a great biological diversity and belongs to the "hotspot" of the Tropical Andes. The most studied plant formation is the cloud forest which have been reported up to 150 different species of trees in an area of 0.25 ha, and where the "niño" or cucharón is the most representative tree species. The park has been reported about 140 species of mammals, 580 birds, 97 reptiles and 38 amphibians. It is estimated that the number of insects than one million species. Among the animal species are endangered birds like the cock of Wetmore, the goldfinch yellow face and the siskin, mammals such as the northern spider monkey, dog foxes and tapirs, and american crocodile, the striped frog and Hercules beetle. Several species of birds and mammals are emblematic of the park: the sorocuá, the beautiful granicera, the harpy eagle, puma, jaguar and howler monkey.
  In the area of Rancho Grande from the way of Ocumare de la Costa to the Biological Station Dr. Alberto Fernández Yépez, administered by the Central University of Venezuela, where since the 1940 is supported studies of the flora and fauna and other natural resources of the park. The station receives researchers from all over Venezuela and around the world fascinated by the extraordinary diversity of life in the cloud forests. Over the years the contributions of these scientists scattered in journals, books, articles and websites have made the PNHP is one of the best documented nationwide. As an example, the Audubon Society of Venezuela has over 10 years studying the migration of birds across the Paso Portachuelo. Students from around the country and the world use the station to develop practical teachers activities on many aspects of the park: zoology, botany, soils, geography, biogeography. Several courses are held annually, both nationally and internationally on selected aspects of the natural history of the cloud forest. The Andrew Field interpretive trail is subject of visits of communities and groups who must request the Inparques a guide to its use. Users of the station should contact to itself to make use of its infrastructure, and also apply for a permission of Inparques to enter at surrounding forest. Those who wish to conduct scientific research must also request permission from the Oficina Nacional de Diversidad Biológica, Ministry of Environment.
caption: The peregrine falcon is an abundant species in the National Park Henri Pittier.
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