Caura National Park

Caura National Park (Parque nacional Caura) is a protected national park in Venezuela. It is 7,534,000 ha. (75,340 km2) in size. It is the largest park in Venezuela. It is also the newest. It was made a park in 2017.

The Caura River is part of the of the Orinoco River. It drains an area of the Guianan Highlands moist forests.

History
In 1968, the government of Raúl Leoni decided to make places into parks. In 2008 the government of Hugo Chávez made the Caura Plan to protect the resources of this river basin.

In March 2017 the government led by Nicolás Maduro made the Caura National Park between the states of Bolívar and Amazonas. Its first management plan was in March 2018.

Living things
Plants
This park has tropical rainforest in it. The most important plant species are cabimo oil, carob tree, araguaney, mahogany and carapa. The place has a surface of 7.534.000 Ha. (75.340 km2), average annual temperature of  and average annual rainfall of .

Animals
The animals in Caura National Park include tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), white-cheeked peccary (Tayassu pecari), white-tailed turkeys (Crax alector) and red-tailed turkeys (Mitu tomentosum), the anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), the limpet (Cuniculus paca), the beak (Myoprocta pratti), the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), the yellow-bellied spider monkey (Ateles belzebuth), rabipelados (Didelphis marsupialis), cachicamos (Dasipus spp), and deer and cranes. It also has large meat-eating animals, for example the jaguar (Panthera onca), puma (Puma concolor) and tayra (Eira barbara). Many of these animals are affected by hunting pressure due to population growth, according to research by the University of Washington and the Wildlife Conservation Society published in 2016.

Related pages
List of national parks of Venezuela
Canaima National Park

References

Category:National parks in Venezuela