Parque Nacional de los Esteros de Farrapos e Islas del Río Uruguay, Nature reserve along Uruguay River in Río Negro Department, Uruguay.
The national park lies along the Uruguay River in Río Negro and protects a complex system of wetlands with 24 islands scattered throughout. These environments change seasonally as river floods reshape waterways and shorelines across the reserve.
In 2004, 17,496 hectares of the wetlands and 24 islands were designated a Ramsar site. In 2001 the land passed from the MGAP to the environment ministry, and on 27 November 2008 decree 579/008 brought 6,327 hectares into the SNAP, covering the mainland near San Javier plus Barco Grande and La Paloma islands.
The name Farrapos is often linked to defeated Brazilian soldiers from the 1845 Farroupilha Revolution, but a more accepted story says a Portuguese administrator, seeing the flooded land, remarked "estamos em farrapos" ("we are in rags"). Some islands are inhabited by a small number of people who live mainly from fishing and beekeeping.
Access is from San Javier in the north or Nuevo Berlín in the south, where camping sites and lodgings exist. Local fishermen offer fishing trips and island visits, and birdwatching, trekking and canoe trips are also arranged. The park stretches about 27 km along the Uruguay River.
The reserve hosts more than 200 bird species that rely on wetlands for feeding and migration. The maned wolf, a large and endangered canid native to South America, finds rare refuge in these isolated areas.
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