It is the type of the family Octodontidae, the members of which - collectively termed octodonts - are exclusively Central and South American.
Guanacos and Argentine hares are found in abundance in Neuquen, and to a lesser degree the South American ostrich.
By the peace of Ghent, December 1814, the United States and England mutually bound themselves to do all in their power to extinguish the traffic. It was at once prohibited in several of the South American states when they acquired independence, as in La Plata, Venezuela and Chile.
Its territory touches that of every South American nation, except Chile, and with each one there has been a boundary dispute at some stage in its political life.
On the temperate uplands of the southern states there are imposing forests of South American pine (Araucaria brasiliensis), whose bare trunks and umbrella-like tops give to them the appearance of open woodland.
