The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Jalisco

Jalisco

Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...

. The park was founded in 1993 and covers 131.42 square kilometres in La Huerta Municipality

La Huerta, Jalisco

La Huerta is a town and municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 1,749.71 km².As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 55811....

. The land is mountainous and contains dry tropical forest and rolling hills and alluvial plains.

Etymology

The name of this protected area is derived from the small town of Chamela

Chamela

Chamela is a small town in the state of Jalisco, on the west coast of Mexico. The town of Chamela sits on the south end of a bay called the Bahía de Chamela, or "Chamela Bay", on Federal Highway 200. San Mateo and Punta Pérula are the two other towns on the bay...

, which was an important port centuries ago, and the Cuixmala

Cuixmala

Cuixmala is located on the Pacific Ocean, on Mexico's Costalegre, also known as the Virgin Coast, and means "the soul's resting place" in Spanish....

 River, which has the largest of all the rivers in the region and acts as a natural boundary for the reserve.

Wildlife

The forest is characterized by its diversity of flora and fauna and a very high number of endemic species. These include jaguar

Jaguar

The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

, puma, ocelot

Ocelot

The ocelot , pronounced /ˈɒsəˌlɒt/, also known as the dwarf leopard or McKenney's wildcat is a wild cat distributed over South and Central America and Mexico, but has been reported as far north as Texas and in Trinidad, in the Caribbean...

, jaguarundi

Jaguarundi

The jaguarundi is a small-sized wild cat native to Central and South America. In 2002, the IUCN classified the jaguarundi as Least Concern as it is likely that no conservation units, with the probable exception of the mega-reserves of the Amazon basin could sustain long-term viable populations. It...

, coyote

Coyote

The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...

, coati

Coati

Coatis, genera Nasua and Nasuella, also known as the Brazilian aardvark, Mexican tejón, hog-nosed coon, pizotes, crackoons and snookum bears, are members of the raccoon family . They are diurnal mammals native to South America, Central America, and south-western North America...

, armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

, skunk

Skunk

Skunks are mammals best known for their ability to secrete a liquid with a strong, foul odor. General appearance varies from species to species, from black-and-white to brown or cream colored. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora...

, white tailed deer, peccary

Peccary

A peccary is a medium-sized mammal of the family Tayassuidae, or New World Pigs. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are the pig family and possibly the hippopotamus family...

, American crocodile

Crocodile

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

, gecko

Gecko

Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....

s, potoo

Potoo

The potoos are a family, Nyctibiidae of near passerine birds related to the nightjars and frogmouths. They are sometimes called Poor-me-ones, after their haunting calls. There are seven species in one genus, Nyctibius, in tropical Central and South America.These are nocturnal insectivores which...

s, hawks, kites, storks, vultures, boas, viper

Viperidae

The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii, various other isolated islands, and above the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long, hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom. Four...

s, coral snake

Coral snake

The coral snakes are a large group of elapid snakes that can be subdivided into two distinct groups, Old World coral snakes and New World coral snakes...

s, toad

Toad

A toad is any of a number of species of amphibians in the order Anura characterized by dry, leathery skin , short legs, and snoat-like parotoid glands...

s, frog

Frog

Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...

s, sea turtle

Sea turtle

Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...

s, opossums, macaws, woodpeckers, etc.

Climate

Its climate is hot and humid with an annual median

Median

In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...

 temperature

Temperature

Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

 of 24.9 degrees Celsius and well-defined seasons. The rainy season lasts from July through October and the dry season is November through June. The median annual precipitation is 748 mm in the hilly Chamela

Chamela

Chamela is a small town in the state of Jalisco, on the west coast of Mexico. The town of Chamela sits on the south end of a bay called the Bahía de Chamela, or "Chamela Bay", on Federal Highway 200. San Mateo and Punta Pérula are the two other towns on the bay...

 region and 782 mm in the Cuixmala region, which spans from the coast to the mountains.
jiji

Protection

Both the National Autonomous University of Mexico

National Autonomous University of Mexico

The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México is a university in Mexico. UNAM was founded on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a liberal alternative to the Roman Catholic-sponsored Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous...

(UNAM) and the Cuixmala Ecological Foundation, A.C, own most of the land in the reserve. The reserve is threatened by development projects in bordering tracts.