San Cristóbal Hill Flora and Fauna

Cerro San Cristóbal has 722 hectares of urban green areas. Each year it receives 4 million
visitors and with a large area and location where dozens of species of fauna and flora are
found.
As explained by Eduardo Pavez, vice president of the Union of Ornithologists of Chile
(Unorch) and the director of Cerro San Cristóbal, they mention that there was an
investigation in which more than 20 birds that inhabit naturally such as chincol birds were
revealed. cachudito, rare - a native species that is seen more and more - and further towards
Huechuraba there are quite a few turkish ones. Furthermore, it is rarer, but towards
Providencia you can see little blind hens and, at night, owls and chunchos.”
Thrushes, blackbirds and doves are common birds in the city that also come to this sector,
but there are also others that are less known. “The peucos take refuge in the large groves of
San Cristóbal to go hunting in other sectors of Santiago. For them the hill is like a refuge.
Towards the side of La Pirámide you can find the Chilean eagle. At least there is a couple
who see each other normally. Pythias, fiofios, woodpeckers and partridges also nest in its
trees. The latter are found more in the northern area of Cerro San Cristóbal.
Up the hill we can find reptiles, such as the striking Chilean iguana, the lemniscata lizard,
some “quite shy” snakes, as well as four-eyed toads, culpeo foxes, quiques (mammal
similar to the badger), degu and Darwin's mouse are others. of the inhabitants of the San
Cristóbal hill.
There is not much about the flora because currently, work is being done to reforest its
slopes with native species and during 2013 a thousand new trees were planted. “Native
plants are more resistant to the environment, and the idea is to enhance our own flora,
which is very beautiful and that people in general do not know about. What happens is that
when the park began to be reforested, this was a quarry, very bare, and what was planted
most were aromas and eucalyptus, which are exotic species,” says Gema García, ecologist
and head of the Gardens and Nursery section. from the San Cristóbal hill. For this reason,
slowly, foreign species are being replaced by quillay, taras, quebrachos, boldos, maitenes
and peumos.
Biologist Luis Valladares has flattened the park researching for a heritage interpretation
project. There he has found thorn steppes, patagua and white poplar forests, a sector of
American oaks, with which wine barrels are made in California, cedars, as well as
Australian, Brazilian and Chilean araucarias. “If you take the time to walk the trails you
will find a variety of ecosystems from all over the world. It is very interesting what can be
seen above San Cristóbal Hill.