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This ecoregion is located at the very eastern and southern edges of the Amazon Basin in eastern Brazil. The northern tip lies at the head of San Marcos Bay, and then the forests follow the Pinaré River west and south to an area of low hills. Rivers that drain to the Atlantic Ocean weave over the flat and gently rolling contours of this landscape, where the elevation ranges from sea level to 500 feet (155 m). Rainfall ranges from 40 to 60 inches each year (1,016 – 1,524 mm), but there is a five- to six-month drought when less than four inches (101 mm) of rain falls each month.
The vegetation of this ecoregion marks the transition between the moist evergreen forest of the Amazon Basin and the drier woodlands and scrub savannas of the central plateau. A short distance away, the species-rich forest is dotted with seasonally wet savannas where sedges and grasses grow. Yellow mombin, hardwood timber trees, legumes, palms, and Protium, a tree used for incense, grow in scattered strands in a dense fabric of oil palm, or babacu trees.
A laughing falcon soars over the savannas, searching the golden ribbons of grass for its favorite food—snakes. It dives and re-emerges with a small boa constrictor coiled in its talons. A savanna fox finishes a quick meal of young armadillo, as a giant anteater plows through the scrubby vegetation in search of termite and ant mounds that it can reach into with its long, sticky tongue. Soon a savanna hawk lands to pick at what remains of the armadillo before another carrion eater, the turkey vulture, arrives on the scene. Near a river, peccaries search for fruits. A young jaguar silently watches these piglike mammals, contemplating whether to face their formidable tusks. Suddenly, there is a flash of glittering green and purple--a passing hummingbird called the fork-tailed woodnymph. A hog-nosed skunk peeks out of the armadillo burrow it has taken over. It will emerge after sunset to look for insects and small lizards.
No large protected areas exist in this ecoregion. Severe deforestation marks the path of shifting cultivation, plantation agriculture, and cattle ranching. Pioneer species such as babacu palms move in and flourish in places where the forest has been cleared. In Maranhão, stands of babacu cover almost 250,000 acres (100,000 ha), and exotic grasses planted in cattle pastures replace native vegetation. For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report. All text by World Wildlife Fund © 2001
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