V.

National Parks around the World

The following discussion highlights a few of the world’s key national parks. Other important national parks are described throughout this article.

A.

North America

More land is protected in the national parks and preserves of North America than on any other continent. In Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with its two spectacular waterfalls cuts through a broad plateau, which provides habitat for grizzly bears, bison, elk, and a growing wolf population. More than 10,000 geysers and hot springs dot this rugged landscape, making it the world’s largest geothermal region.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park (1934) preserves 130 tree species and 26 salamander species in 2165 sq km (813 sq mi) of virgin woodlands in Kentucky and Tennessee. Denali National Park and Preserve (1917), encompassing 20,233 sq km (7812 sq mi) in Alaska’s Interior, protects subarctic tundra habitat for grizzly and black bears, caribou, moose, wolves, and bald eagles. The park surrounds towering Mount McKinley—at 6140 m (20,130 ft), the tallest mountain in North America.

Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park (1922), which stretches 44,807 sq km (17,300 sq mi) from Alberta into the Northwest Territories, is a sanctuary for the largest members of wood buffalo and wolves. Grasslands National Park (1981) in Saskatchewan preserves 907 sq km (350 sq mi) of windswept prairie. The 10,000 sq km (3861 sq mi) of arctic tundra within Ivvavik National Park in the Northwest Territories (1922) provides habitat for the 152,000-head Porcupine Caribou herd.

National parks in Central America protect lush tropical rain forests with a seemingly infinite diversity of plants and animals. Hundreds of reptilian, amphibian, and bird species inhabit these dense forests. Costa Rica established its park system in 1970 to reverse the creeping destruction of wilderness areas. National parks, reserves for native peoples and their traditional lifestyles, biological preserves that protect a vast diversity of plant life, and wildlife refuges and corridors now blanket more than a quarter of the country. The diversity within these parks ranges from tropical rain forests and savannas to coral reefs. Costa Rica’s parks support more than 850 bird species, 10,000 insect species, and 9000 plant species, including 1200 varieties of orchids. Jaguars, ocelots, margays, pumas, and tiger cats roam these protected areas.

Visitors can observe two volcanic craters in the country’s 57 sq km (22 sq mi) Poas Volcano National Park (1971). One crater steams with geysers and bubbling volcanic vents while the other lies dormant, filled with a deep, blue lake. At Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (1950s), three-toed sloths, jaguars, and tiny orchids are part of the complex ecosystems thriving under the canopy (the uppermost layer of branches) of the protected 106 sq km (41 sq mi) rain forest.

B.

South America

The 6436 km long (4,000 mi long) Amazon River, which supports thousands of ecosystems with its web of rivers, streams, and rain forests, dominates South America’s landscape. Annual rainfall at the headwaters of the Amazon Basin can exceed 3 m (10 ft), and the river funnels one-sixth of the world’s runoff of surface water into the Atlantic Ocean.

Near the source of the Amazon River in the Peruvian Andes lies Manu Biosphere Reserve (1973), which sprawls 18,907 sq km (7,300 sq mi). Manu Biosphere Reserve is a combination of national park, natural preserve, and inhabited cultural zone. The inhabited cultural zone protects traditional lifestyles of native peoples who live and farm there, while the preserve is open for both scientific research and tourism. The biosphere (a group of interdependent ecosystems unique to the region) includes grassy, treeless slopes rising to 3965 m (13,000 ft) dry land forests with scattered groves of trees, ferns, and orchids, and dense rain forests that shelter dozens of plant communities, some older than the last Ice Age. Brilliant macaws, crested owls, storks, monkeys, and snakes are among the wildlife that populates its forests of mahogany and tropical cedar. Aquatic life navigating the Manu River and its tributaries, which lead to the Amazon River, includes turtles, piranha, stingrays, and caiman.

Medical treatments for a variety of diseases eventually may come from life within the biosphere. More than 25 percent of pharmaceutical medications now comes from tropical plants, yet only about 10 percent of the biosphere’s plants and animals have been identified, with only 1 percent of its plants tested for medicinal values.

C.

Europe

Unlike national parks in North and South America, those in Britain are not entirely owned by the government or managed primarily for recreation and wildlife. Many park lands are privately owned and encompass old settlements. Within 2331 sq km (900 sq mi) Lake District National Park (1951) are many quaint towns and villages. Working farms, rock quarries, and old mines are scattered throughout the park. These farms provide habitat for red deer, fox, swans, and trout. The hundreds of lakes within the park inspired its name, and England’s tallest peak, 978 m (3,209 ft) Scafell Pike, stands here. Stone and earthen ruins as well as burial mounds of England’s Stone, Iron, and Bronze Ages are sheltered in 1437 sq km (555 sq mi) Peak National Park (1951) and 694 sq km (268 sq mi) Exmoor National Park (1954).

National parks in Norway protect colonies of seabirds, walrus, and reindeer herds. Forlandet National Park (1973) is a narrow island with several small glaciers clinging to high peaks. The 640 sq km (247 sq mi) island lies along the northernmost reach of the ocean stream from the Gulf of Mexico, which creates a mild climate, making this an important breeding ground for guillemot ducklike auks. Seals, eider ducks, and geese also depend on its habitats.

Spain’s Doana National Park (1969) provides a 507 sq km (196 sq mi) wildlife refuge where birds that nest in northern Europe feed while migrating to Africa. The last surviving wild lynxes in southern Europe find sanctuary there as well.

D.

Africa

Many national parks and preserves in Africa serve as valuable watersheds by stemming erosion while maintaining natural runoff. Numerous herds of land mammals on the savannas create channels in the ground with their hoof prints during migrations through the parks. In the rainy seasons, the channels fill and supply water for vegetation. Runoff that will sustain wildlife when the rains end streams through these channels into rivers, watering holes, and lakes on the protected lands.

Zimbabwe’s largest national park, Hwange, was established in 1929, primarily because poor soils and scarce water made it unsuitable for agriculture. Despite those conditions, wildlife now flourishes in the 14,651 sq km (5657 sq mi) park. More than 20,000 elephants roamed this area in the mid-1970s, but managed culling (selectively removing old or weak animals from herds) reduced their population to around 12,000 to ease the impact on the park’s limited vegetation. Hwange National Park also supports buffalo, zebra, giraffe, kudu and sable antelope, and impala. Black and white rhinoceros have been returned successfully, and hippopotamuses and crocodiles reside in the park’s water holes and small dam reservoirs. Predators including lions and leopards roam throughout the park.

E.

Asia

Corbett National Park became India’s first national park in 1936. Serving as a preserve for tigers, the 521 sq km (201 sq mi) park also protects leopards, several species of monkeys, crocodiles, myna birds, parakeets, and woodpeckers. Tigers are more easily spotted in 392 sq km (151 sq mi) Ranthambore National Park (1980) than in any of India’s other parks. The big cats can be spotted drinking from the park’s lakes and even prowling about Ranthambore Fort, which was built when the park’s land was a private hunting ground used by royalty.

The Indian government also is working to preserve the Asiatic lion, a smaller cousin of the African lion. The Asiatic lion’s only remaining natural habitat is in 259 sq km (100 sq mi) Gir National Park and Lion Sanctuary (1975), where the cat lives in thick forests of teak, ber, jamun, and babul trees. Asiatic lions once roamed from the Middle East to India, but hunting reduced the wild population to fewer than 100 animals by the end of the 19th century. Protection programs at Gir National Park helped the population rebound to nearly 300 by 1996.

Nepal is another Asian nation working to preserve tigers. In 1980, the federal government launched a long-term tiger monitoring project in 932 sq km (360 sq mi) Royal Chitwan National Park (1973), to study the population, habitat, and conservation of tigers.

The largest national park in Malaysia is Gunung Mulu (1974), which encompasses 529 sq km (204 sq mi). Gunung Mulu National Park is the site of the world’s largest limestone cave system with over 200 km (124 mi) of underground passageways. On the surface are 15 different types of forests with thousands of flowering plants, ferns, and mosses, including 170 species of wild orchids and 10 species of the insect-eating pitcher plant.

China did not begin conserving open lands until 1956, when 11 sq km (4 sq mi) Zhaoging Dinghushan Natural Reserve was established in Guangdon Province. Although China now has 463 protected areas, land preservation there still lags behind that of other Asian nations. Poorly defined boundaries, poaching, logging, mining, construction, over-grazing, and the growing human population threaten many areas designated for natural habitat and wildlife protection in the country.

F.

Oceania

The far-flung islands that straddle the equator in the western Pacific Ocean, collectively known as Oceania, contain a rich diversity of parks and preserves. Oceania’s islands and surrounding waters contain some 2000 ecosystems, which range from watery reefs to dense rain forests.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (1979), covering 343,784 sq km (132,739 sq mi) of the Coral Sea, is located off the east coast of the island continent of Australia. Rich populations of fish and marine mammals live among the brilliantly hued coral reefs there. Iron Range National Park (1977) covers 346 sq km (134 sq mi) of Australia’s lowland rain forest. The continent’s largest protected area, Kakadu National Park (1979), encompasses 20,000 sq km (7,700 sq mi) of diverse landscapes leased from aboriginal peoples. Located on the coast along the Timor Sea east of Darwin, Kakadu National Park includes wetlands, grasslands, eucalyptus forests, and gorges. It supports a third of the continent’s plant and animal species, including saltwater crocodiles, frilled lizards, flying foxes, and black wallaroos, a relative of the kangaroo. Aboriginal paintings that date back 20,000 to 35,000 years appear on some of the park’s rocky outcroppings.

On nearby New Zealand, snowcapped peaks climb to 3776 m (12,349 ft) in 699 sq km (270 sq mi) Mount Cook National Park (1953). More than half an ocean away, two active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, emit fire and steam, and produce rivers of lava in 927 sq km (358 sq mi) Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (1961) in Hawaii. Stretching west from the Hawaiian islands is the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument (2006), the world’s largest marine conservation area and home to thousands of species of animals, including the endangered monk seal. The national monument covers nearly 362,600 sq km (140,000 sq mi) of tropical ocean with coral reefs and uninhabited islands.