The Sierra San Luis range is a mountain range in northwest Chihuahua, northeast Sonora

Sonora

Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental

Sierra Madre Occidental

The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...

 cordillera. The region contains sky island

Sky island

Sky islands are mountains that are isolated by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment, a situation which, in combination with the altitudinal zonation of ecosystems, has significant implications for natural habitats. Endemism, vertical migration, and relict populations are...

 mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands

Madrean sky islands

The Madrean Sky Islands are enclaves of Madrean pine-oak woodlands, found at higher elevations in a complex of small mountain ranges in southern and southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northwestern Mexico. The sky islands are surrounded at lower elevations by the Sonoran and...

, some separated from the Sierra Madre Occidental proper, and occurring in the northeastern Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...

, and extreme west-northwestern Chihuahuan Desert

Chihuahuan Desert

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert, and an ecoregion designation, that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra...

. Many of the ranges occur in southeast Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.

Most of Sierra San Luis is privately owned land. The mountain range and the range to the north, the Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County

Peloncillo Mountains (Hidalgo County)

The Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County, , is a major 35-mi long mountain range of southwest New Mexico's Hidalgo County, and also part of the New Mexico Bootheel region. The range continues to the northwest into Arizona as the Peloncillo Mountains of Cochise County, Arizona...

, New Mexico, can be viewed from the west at the Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge

Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge

The Leslie Canyon National Wildlife Refuge area was established in 1988 to protect habitat for the endangered Yaqui Chub and Yaqui Topminnow...

 and the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge

San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge

The San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge is located on the U.S.-Mexican border in Cochise County, Arizona. Situated at 3,720 to elevation in the bottom of a wide valley, the refuge encompasses a portion of the headquarters of the Yaqui River, which drains primarily western Chihuahua and eastern...

.

The Rio Bavispe borders the southeast of Sierra San Luis and flows northwest around the Sierra del Tigre

Sierra del Tigre

Sierra del Tigre is a mountain range in northeastern Sonora, Mexico at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The region contains sky island mountain ranges, called the Madrean Sky Islands, some separated from the Sierra Madre Occidental proper, and occurring in the northeastern...

 range.

Fauna and flora

Sky island

Sky island

Sky islands are mountains that are isolated by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment, a situation which, in combination with the altitudinal zonation of ecosystems, has significant implications for natural habitats. Endemism, vertical migration, and relict populations are...

s often lead to geographic isolation; (the tepui

Tepui

A tepui , or tepuy, is a table-top mountain or mesa found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana....

s of north-northeastern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

). The Madrean Sky Islands are being studied for mammal movements, the cats especially, bobcat

Bobcat

The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...

s, mountain lions, etc.

An example study is for snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

s, the Animas ridge-nosed rattlesnake, Crotalus willardi obscurus

Crotalus willardi obscurus

Crotalus willardi obscurus is a venomous pitviper subspecies found in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.This is the only venomous snake listed as Threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.-Description:...

. It is being studied in 3 sky island ranges: Animas Mountains

Animas Mountains

The Animas Mountains are a small mountain range in Hidalgo County, within the "Boot-Heel" region of far southwestern New Mexico, in the United States. They extend north-south for about 30 miles along the Continental Divide, from near the town of Animas to a few miles north of the border with...

, the Peloncillos, and Sierra San Luis.

External links

• Sierra El Tigre-(click on Locator Map for Sierra San Luis)-(Article and Locator Map, regional mountain ranges)