Bolivia Photograph by Gary Hartshorn   Neotropical Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   34,900 square miles (90,500 square kilometers) -- slightly smaller than Indiana Vulnerable

· Green Plants Galore
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Green Plants Galore

Step into the evergreen forests of the Bolivian Yungas and you'll be overwhelmed by their abundant green growth. The trees around you will be covered with epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and mosses. As you climb up in elevation you'll eventually come into cloud forests with an exceptionally high diversity of trees. But watch out! Landslides are common in this area because of the steepness of the terrain. When they occur, trees topple and new growth begins. Still, your hike will most likely be focused not on sliding mud but on diverse life forms, such as hooded mountain toucans plucking fruit from a fig tree and spider monkeys grooming their young.

Special Features

This ecoregion extends from southeastern Peru along the eastern slope of the Andes through central Bolivia. Elevations range from 1,485 to 12,210 feet (450-3,700 m). The ecoregion borders montane puna grassland habitat at high elevations, dry forest to the south, and Amazon moist forest at lower elevations. It consists of lowland evergreen forests, montane forests, and cloud forests with high numbers of endemic species and high diversity. The terrain is often steep and rugged with extreme ridges and valleys. The climate is very humid due to the northerly trade winds, which deliver an abundance of mist and rain. Precipitation is between 100 and 120 inches (2,500 and 3,000 mm) annually.

	Each species of fig tree is dependent upon a different species of wasp that not only spends much of its life inside the fig’s fruit but also is responsible for pollinating the fig’s flowers.

Wild Side

Visit these forests at dawn and you may see a night monkey heading for shelter. And you'll probably hear a troop of black howler monkeys calling with their deep and loud whoops and howls, sounding like jungle beasts much larger than they are. Tanagers and sunbeams fly by like shiny jewels, the tanagers stopping to glean insects from foliage, while the sunbeams sip nectar from flowers as they buzz by. A small-eared dog shakes off the cobwebs that cling to its dark brown fur as it exits the hollow log it has established as a den. A large southern helmeted curassow, looking like a black turkey with a blue horn on its forehead, struts along a gray-brocket deer trail, carefully avoiding the deep footprints of a tapir. A dung beetle rolls its ball of dung across fallen heliconia leaves, seeking the perfect spot to bury it and deposit her eggs in it. A gray-bellied flower piercer visits a blooming vine, stabs a flower with its curved beak, and drinks its nectar.

Cause for Concern

Timber exploitation and colonization are the major threats. At lower elevations, major habitat loss is due to subsistence agriculture and cocoa and coffee cultivation. Road building is also becoming an increasing problem.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.