Semi-arid Pampas

Targeted during successive genocidal campaigns between 1830 and 1880, however, these inhabitants lost most ñandús to massacres by Argentine armies, who believed that in so doing, the indigenous tribes could be starved into surrender.

The region is also home to pumas, pampas foxes, cavias, maras and other drought-resistant mammals, as well as some also common to North America, like skunks and opossums.

The arrival of British-financed railways to the region in the 1880s brought with it the area's first significant presence of white settlers, some of whom had served in the regiments involved in the Conquest of the Desert and were granted vast tracts of land.

Dams along the Atuel River, for instance, are often allowed to release the rainy season's excess water with little regard to the area around rural Algarrobo del Aguila, La Pampa, causing avoidable inconvenience and disruption of nearby wetlands.

In 1971, descendants of La Pampa Province landowners Arminda Roca and Pedro Luro deeded 7,600 hectares (29 mi2) to the provincial government, which opened the park to the public five years later.