The Copo National Park is a national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, located in the Copo Department, province

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Santiago del Estero

Santiago del Estero Province

Santiago del Estero is a province of Argentina, located in the north of the country. Neighbouring provinces are from the north clockwise Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.-History:...

. It has an area of 1142.5 km². It was created in 1998 in order to preserve a number of endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

.

The park belongs to the Dry Chaco ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

. The climate is warm, with annual rainfall between 500 and 700 mm. A large part of it is made up of forest, with the Santiago red quebracho (quebracho colorado santiagueño) being its characteristic tree species. This tree has a strong wood and high content of tannin

Tannin

A tannin is an astringent, bitter plant polyphenolic compound that binds to and precipitates proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.The term tannin refers to the use of...

, and in the past it suffered a devastating exploitation in other parts of the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, Santiago del Estero was 80% quebracho scrubland; nowadays only 20% remain.

Endangered species that live in this park include the maned wolf

Maned Wolf

The maned wolf is the largest canid of South America, resembling a large fox with reddish fur.This mammal is found in open and semi-open habitats, especially grasslands with scattered bushes and trees, in south, central-west and south-eastern Brazil The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the...

 yaguareté (jaguar

Jaguar

The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

), the Giant Anteater

Anteater

Anteaters, also known as antbear, are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...

, the chacoan peccary

Chacoan peccary

The Chacoan peccary or Tagua is a species of peccary found in the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. About 3000 exist in the world...

, the tatú carreta (a species of armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

) and a species of parrot.