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Sierra Cristal National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Sierra Cristal) is a national park, the first national park created in Cuba, established by presidential decree on 24 April 1930.[2] It occupies mountainous terrain in Holguín Province in eastern Cuba.[3]
It is located in the municipalities of Mayarí and Sagua de Tánamo in southern Holguín Province[4] It consists of mountainous terrain in the Sierra Cristal, a part of the Nipe-Sagua-Baracoa mountain range.[4] It covers an area of 185.37 square kilometres (71.57 sq mi).[5][6] Cristal Peak (Pico Cristal) is the highest point in the park, with an elevation of 1,300 m (4,300 ft).[6]
Pine forests dominate, especially the Cuban pine (Pinus cubensis),[3] which can reach a height of 30 m (98 ft)[7] in this area. There are also ferns, orchids, and mahogany and cedar trees.[3]
There are many bird species in residence, such as the Cuban trogon (Cuba's national bird), the bee hummingbird (the smallest known bird), the Cuban parrot, and possibly the ivory-billed woodpecker (though it was last seen in Cuba in 1987 and may be extinct[8][9]).[3]
The endangered Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus),[6] a small, shrew-like mammal and the hutia, a moderately large rodent, can be found here.[3]
The park was created by presidential decree on 24 April 1930, initially covering an area of 26,800 hectares (66,000 acres),[10] to protect the flora and fauna, but in 1958 it was acknowledged that little had been done in the way of conservation.[2]
A research center established in 1988 in Pinares de Mayarí monitors the ecology of the region.[7]
... until 1986, when Lester Short of the American Museum of Natural History and his colleagues announced seeing Ivory-bills in the mountains of eastern Cuba ... The last sighting in Cuba was in 1987.
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker Campephilus principalis has suffered from destruction of its habitat over the whole of its range, being last recorded in eastern Cuba (Ojito de Agua) in 1987.