Esteros de Farrapos

Declared in 2004, it protects an archipelago of low river islands in the river Uruguay, with a complex network of marshes and wetlands forming part of the Corredor de las Aves Pintadas, a regional birdwatching circuit crossing Uruguay and the Argentine littoral. It is a Ramsar site of internationally important wetlands and one of the last Uruguayan refuges of the marsh deer, the largest deer species in South America, whose population in the country had fallen drastically through hunting and wetland loss before the park's protection allowed a moderate local recovery.