The high pirizales and floodable grasslands are the environments where one of the most typical species of the zone dwells: the marsh deer, an endangered species in Argentina.
The river otters can be seen swimming swiftly in the lagoons. They are abundant on the shores along with the guinea pigs.
The aguará-guazú or maned wolf is well adapted to life in the estuaries. It is a huge fox of reddish hair and long black legs, very rarely seen in the Province and on the brink of extinction as well.
The pampas cat, the already very scarce onza cat or ocelot, the aguará popé, the brown mountain goat or guazuncho and the mountain fox, amongst other species, inhabit the upper parts of the mountains.
Birds
They are the ones calling the immediate attention of visitors due to their abundance and their colourful plumage.
We find the green kingfisher, American coot, cattle egret, cardinal, southern lapwing, pigeons, woodpeckers, big toucan, parrots and parakeets in the forests of talas and espinillos, whilst the rhea, hawks, common rhea, owls and tinamou live in the grasslands.
We find the tuyuyú or big john, a huge stork feeding on fishes in aquatic environments, along with flamingos, herons, swans, spoonbills and sirirí ducks. The federals, of flashy black plumage and orange head, sit on the long stems of the totora reeds and the pehuajó, along with the lavandera of white head and black body, whilst the wattled jacana or small cock of the waters moves along the aquatic vegetation looking for insects and crustaceous to feed on.
Fishes
The fish fauna is pretty numerous in here, and you can easily find dolphin-fishes (one of the largest fishes with an adult specimen weighing up to 25 kilos), surubis, patíes, shads, ray's breams, atherine, pacúes, bogas, catfishes, salmons, mandubíes and tarariraes, a voracious species considered the major predator that has the particularity of being able to breathe air, hence it is capable of resisting the evaporation of its environment and of subsisting in places with little water. They can also move from one pond to another crawling like eels or using their pectoral and caudal fins.
Reptiles
Corrientes is the realm of the caiman, which mainly establishes itself on the estuaries and wetlands. Huge specimens of black caimans (the adult male can be up to 2.10 metres long), and nesting caimans appear with the first sunrays and they remain motionless for hours.
Other reptiles: aquatic turtles, lizards, green caimans and iguanas, large and harmless snakes such as the ñacaniná and the flashy curiyú boa. This boa is perfectly adapted to the aquatic environment, having its eyes and nostrils on the upper head thus allowing it to prowl its prey almost totally submerged.
Threatening snakes, due to their venom, such as the yarará or fer de lance, the rattlesnake and the coral snake, usually appear marauding by the watercourses when the sun sets on the grassland.
The small frog of Pedersen, (Argenteohyla siemersi pederseni), a new species rediscovered to the Province of Corrientes, stands out amongst the amphibious.
Numerous insects proliferate in the flooded areas: jejenes, mosquitoes, polvorines and piques.
FLORA IN CORRIENTES
The Mesopotamian Park, a formation predominant in the territory of Corrientes grows between the Missionary Forest to the north and the Pampas Steppe to the south, a variety of plants constituted by trees, shrubs and herbaceous species typical of the region determined by the geography.
We find prairies and savannahs with grasses, by themselves or along with other formations: hydrophilic species in the marshy areas, galleries of forests alongside the riverbanks and isolated forest groups in the midst of the grasslands; although usually the weather conditions determine the predominance of trees in the north and grasses in the south.
The main trees are the urunday, the pau d'arco, the white fern leaf acacia, the guapohú, the timbó, the ceiba, the isa-purú and the crossbred willow, alternated with thorny bushes, lianas and bamboos.
It also comprises the type of forest known as The Gallery, which grows alongside the watercourses and that happens to be a prolongation of the Missionary Forest where the tacuaruzú, the red or crossbred willow, pindó, ibirá pitá, higuerón or agarrapalo, ombú, laurel, red timbó and the river evergreen alder grow. The soil is covered in mosses and abundant epiphytes live on the trunks of the trees.
Iguazu Falls
