If you want to visit Big Bend National Park, you have to travel to Texas. Here the park welcomes over 300,000 visitors annually on an area of 3,242 km². The Big Bend National Park was founded on June 12, 1944.
Located on the border with Mexico, you will find the typical animals and plants here. See directoryaah for museums in Texas. The history of the park is of course closely linked to that of the Mexican and Texan population.
The story of Big Bend National Park
In the Big Bend National Park you can find a lot of fossils, which archaeological studies indicate, date from the Cretaceous period. Several skeletons of the largest known pterosaur from its time were also found here. Our ancestors also left their human relics there. Evidence of human settlement in the area was found around 9,000 years old. Before the Europeans settled on this land, different Indian tribes lived there. In 1535 the Spaniards conquered the country and searched for gold and silver here and took Indians as slaves. After several attacks by the Indians and a war with Mexico, the area around and in Big Bend National Park was finally settled in 1870. Agriculture and cattle breeding followed here as well. In 1900 the land of sheep, Herds of goats and cattle coated. Which resulted in the area being overgrazed. The country began to be protected in 1930 and just a few years later the State of Texas acquired the rights to Big Bend National Park and declared it a national park on June 12, 1944. The development of the area was stopped immediately. So today there is only one hotel in Chisos Mountain Lodge.
The fauna and flora of Big Bend National Park
Big Bend National Park is located in an extremely dry area. Here at times not a single drop of rain falls from the sky for weeks! Therefore, especially yucca and cactus plants have developed here. These can store the few water reserves and then gradually release them. In addition to the cacti and yuccas, you will mainly find bushes here. Despite the dry times, the desert areas are among the wettest in North America.
This climate is particularly preferred by animals such as collar peccaries, mule deer, donkey rabbits and racing cuckoos. Therefore, they can also be found in the Big Bend National Park.
Big Bend National Park also has some mountain slopes where real deciduous forests grow. Here you can find animals typical of this environment, such as the black bear.
Special highlight: There are still pumas in the Big Bend National Park! According to reports, around 150 sightings of the rare animals are reported. You can also find coyotes and white-tailed deer here. Those who would like to observe foxes or bobcats in their natural environment are also in the right place here in Big Bend National Park. By the way, the vultures are still circling the area personally. The cottontail rabbits are also interesting. These are plentiful in this area.
Plant fans will get their money’s worth in Big Bend National Park. There are a total of more than 1,200 different plant species to marvel at and discover. By the way, 40 species of fish live in the river landscapes. If you haven’t had enough, you can observe around 11 types of amphibians, 56 different types of reptiles, 75 types of mammals and a total of 450 different types of birds! Despite the dry climate, Big Bend National Park leads the American national parks in terms of biodiversity.
