page_title: Semi-arid Pampas
section_title: Fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Semi-arid Pampas / Fauna
context_page_description: The Semi-arid Pampas, also known as the Dry Pampas, is a temperate grassland ecoregion of central Argentina.
context_section_description: In part owing to its sparse landscape and unreliable rains, the area's fauna rather resembles much of neighboring Patagonia's. Perhaps the most common natural inhabitant to the region is the ñandú, or, Darwin's rhea. Nearly ubiquitous to the region in the early 19th century, vast herds were often observed at the time and, indeed, they and their eggs had for centuries provided the Puelches and the area's other indigenous peoples with much of their protein needs. Targeted during successive genocidal campaigns between 1830 and 1880, however, these inhabitants lost most ñandús to massacres by Argentine armies, who believed that in so doing, the indigenous tribes could be starved into surrender.
  Nearing extinction by the 1920s, the ñandú herds have recovered substantially and have since then, like the likewise then-nearly extinct pampas deer, been protected by law. Other common fowl include gray hawks, partridges, martins, coots and storks.
  The region is also home to pumas, pampas foxes, cavias, maras and other drought-resistant mammals, as well as some also common to North America, like skunks and opossums.
caption: Darwin's rheas, known locally as the ñandú.
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