DISCTRICT OF TIGRE
The continental territory is delimited by the Paraná de las Palmas River to the north, Río de la Plata to the northeast, San Fernando District to the southeast , San Martín District to the south, Malvinas Argentinas District to the southwest and Escobar District to the west.
The District of Tigre is made up of by the following regions: Downtown Tigre, Delta, El Talar, Dique Luján, Pacheco, Troncos del Talar, Ricardo Rojas, Benavídez, Nordelta, Nuevo Delta, Don Torcuato and Rincón de Milberg.
DELTA ISLAND
The Paraná River is one of the largest in the world. On its route it carries a large volume of sediments that are deposited before its mouth in the Río de la Plata, forming banks that grow continuously and give rise to islands. Thus, over millennia, the Paraná Delta originated, which covers about 14,000 km2. It is the fifth largest in the entire planet and the third in importance in South America, the most populous and the most affected by human activities.
The Tigre Delta has more than 350 rivers and streams. This complex water system, born from the formation and growth of the islands that divide the course of the waters, contributes to give its shape to the landscape, constitutes lines of communication, models the life and customs of its inhabitants and plays a very important role in the history and culture of the place.
The biological corridor of the Paraná Delta allows many plant and animal species from subtropical environments to be distributed in more southern latitudes. The great heterogeneity of the landscape turns these wetlands into environments with high biodiversity.
FLORA
On inspection of the first section of the Delta, we find different natural river ecosystems. First of all, there are the reed beds, where the waves of the river arrive making the reeds bob, very resistant to strong currents and high tides. In the flooded forest we find species such as the ‘ceibo’ (Erithrina crista-galli) , with its striking red flowers, the willow. The willow is commonly found in two different forms, as a dense forest, where all the specimens are of the same age and form a homogeneous population, or interspersed with other species such as those already mentioned.
The aquatic environments are composed of: sawgrass in the highest areas, sarandí, yellow lily, and totoras on the shores, and a dense floating vegetation, composed mainly of water ferns, duckweed, water cabbage and water hyacinths, along with a variety of submerged plants. In the highest areas we find the dry forest, mainly composed of espinillo, poplar, cina-cina and tala. Among other species are the weeping willow, poplar willow, pecan, privet, chinese privet, chinaberry tree, sweet gum and casuarina.
On the banks of the rivers a varied environment is formed. All this vegetation is intermingled with fruit trees (oranges, lemons, walnuts, plums, mandarins), ferns (hydrangeas, azaleas, camellias). There are cane and phormium plants. In the parks, sidewalks and squares, there are various species such as eucalyptus, jacaranda, araucaria or Paraná pine, banana, tilia, chinaberry tree, different classes of conifers, etc.
FAUNA
One of the faunal attractions is the birds, represented by more than 170 species, although not all are present at the same time of year. The most characteristic birds of this natural area are the aquatic ones, such as the giant wood rail, the limpkin and the neotropic cormorant. The latter is characterized by being a good diver and is usually seen posing on a stick or tree trunk with its wings extended to dry them in the sun. There are also eye-catching species such as the cocoi heron, the great egret and the black-crowned night heron, which are usually found perched on the ceibos surrounding the lagoon.
The forest, on the other hand, is visited by thrushes, who frequently search the ground for worms, green-barred woodpeckers, who with their strong and sharp beaks look for insects under the bark of trees, and among the shrubs, the masked gnatcatchers, both agile and restless, move quickly among the vegetation, always raising their tail. On the beach it is very common to see the great egret, the brown-hooded gull, and in the riverside reeds, the wren-like rushbird, the saffron-cowled blackbird and the many-colored rush-tyrant.
In the forests you can see the rufous-bellied thrush, the creamy-bellied thrush, the chalk-browed mockingbird, the solitary cacique, the great kiskadee, the restless polioptila dumicola, the small-billed elaenia, the house wren, the grayish baywing, and the rufous-capped antshrike, among others.In rivers and streams it is common to see the long-necked turtle, on stones or tree trunks, and some rays especially in sandy areas.
There are also different types of snakes, some large but harmless, and a very dangerous species, the crossed pit viper, which is usually found in the virgin mountains, away from the presence of humans. Sometimes some specimens can be found after a flood or in water hyacinths though. Pink clusters of apple snail eggs can also be observed on vegetation on the banks of the rivers.
GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
The district covers an area of 148 km² on the mainland, and 220 km² of islands. As of 2010, there was a population of 380,709.
In the municipality, the continental section, agglomerated to Buenos Aires, is separated from the island sector of the Paraná Delta by the Luján River. The portion of the Delta that corresponds to the District of Tigre is a small part of the total, and it is known as the ‘First Section of the Buenos Aires Delta’.
One of the giant rivers in the world, the Paraná (Guarani: father of the sea) is responsible for this vast geological formation. Its astounding facts and figures never cease to amaze, runs along 4000km, more than half a million m3 of water each year, forms a hydrographic basin of around 2,800,000 km2, and contributes more than 200 million tons of solid material each year. Like a plain river, the murky waters of the Paraná meander tortuously and in their path numerous sediment deposits form islands that divide it into thousands of arms.
Finally, that tangle of land and water forms the Delta. Our Delta offers several peculiarities worthy of mention, it is perhaps the only one in the world that does not flow into the sea, but into another great river, its waters being entirely fresh; geologically speaking it is a new formation in development. Another fact that influences its development is that the sources of the Paraná and its major tributaries are in the tropical zone, while the Delta enjoys a warm temperate climate, with cold winters though tempered by the action of the waters arriving from the north. It is these waters that have determined the lush vegetation and fauna that embellishes it even more when visiting it.