FAUNA IN SAN LUIS

In spite of the aridity of San Luis' geography, the fauna is abundant. Pumas, mountain cats, grey foxes, marmots and wild boars are the biggest carnivores allowing themselves to be caught by the eye of the traveller, although most of the times they let their presence be noted by the tracks they leave around the scarce water holes. The mara, wrongly called the Patagonian hare, can sometimes be seen around the roads. The deer, formerly abundant, is currently sparse.

When visitors get into the heart of the province, they will open their senses little by little until they become flooded by the melodious repertoire of its particular birds. The first ones to show off are the active teros, the yellow cardinals, the reina moras and the catita parakeets from the sierras.

But travellers will also encounter pepiteros and monteritas, apart from a great variety of little birds. The bird list is not completed without the rhea, the grey falcon, the collared peccary, the goldfinch, the cat thrush, the baker bird, and the majestic Andean condor.

Amphibious species are very scarce and they can spend the dry season buried under ground or in small shaded puddles in the form of tadpoles.

The lizards are the most seen reptiles. And the rodent eating boa is searched after for its beautiful skin.

There are also numerous aquatic birds, among which the common flamenco stands out. Atherines, trout and criollo perch can be also be found in its watercourses.

FLORA IN SAN LUIS

The Province of San Luis has three very different zones: the woodland, the western Chaco (from the Quechua word chacu, meaning big game reserve) and, in between, an ample transitional fringe with extended plains.

In the woodland area we find extended arum and broom fields, which cover the most arid areas. There is a unique kind of tree with a tortuous aspect growing above Potrero de la Aguada, it is the so called chica, an endemic species of the woodland.

Other endemic species are the so called solo, which has the shape of a whitely coloured round cushion, the purslane, a vegetable with intense and flashy green colours and fleshy leafs.

Diverse types of grass emerge forming large spots in the sandy ground's zone, the place where the sierra skirts begin, which is bordered by different types of shrubs. Along them coexist corpulent white quebracho trees, as well as locust trees, thorny chañar trees and the so called brea bushes.

There are also carnauba palm tree stands along the border of the Comechingones sierra and in Luján.

In the humid upper sierras the molle pepper trees start to announce itserlf, willing to show the travellers their leafy and shiny tops, and their joy of standing amidst a mixture of huckleberry and chañar trees.