Poco das Antas Biol. Res., Brazil Photograph by WWF/ James M Diez   South America: Along the Atlantic coast of southeastern and southern Brazil Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   40,500 square miles (104,800 square kilometers) -- about the size of Ohio Critical/Endangered

· Mountains, Rain Forests, and Endemic Birds
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Mountains, Rain Forests, and Endemic Birds

The Serro do Mar Coastal Forests form the southern extremes of eastern Brazilian rain forest, where the diversity of plants is astounding. The habitat is predominantly tropical lowland evergreen forest, with areas of coastal restinga, gallery forest, and scrub. These forests occur around bustling Rio de Janeiro, south along the coast for several hundred miles, gradually becoming the Uroguayan Savanna. In the patches of mountainous area, humid forests give way to conifer forests and form islands of this unique habitat. The isolation of these habitat islands has led to the evolution of a large number of endemic species. One can find many rare and endemic birds, including the Rio de Janeiro antbird, Bahia tapaculo, red-tailed amazon, and hook-billed hermit.

Special Features

This ecoregion is famous for having some of the highest numbers of endemic plants, birds, butterflies, amphibians, and mammals in South America. Covering a huge range in altitude, this ecoregion stretches from coastal plains that are just above sea level to high mountains that range up to 6,600 feet (2,000 m) above sea level. Precipitation levels range from 40 to 80 inches (1,000 to 2,000 mm) annually, and temperatures are fairly constant. Plant diversity is high, with tall emergent trees, lianas, epiphytes, and tree ferns. Most of the original forests have been replaced by secondary-growth species such as cecropia, bamboo, and cassia.

	An endemic buffy-tufted-ear marmoset is found only in the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro. This tiny primate weighs less than a pound (400 g) and moves about in small groups seeking fruit, insects, and sap and gum, which it extracts from trees by chewing at the bark.

Wild Side

Endemic mammals include a number of marsupials, such as the four-eyed opossum, a mouse opossum, and a short-tailed opossum. Here one can find the rare turkey-like red-billed curassow scratching through leaf litter along forest edges, seeking small lizards and insects. Another bird, the three-toed jacamar, alights from a branch to snatch a colorful heliconid butterfly, which it holds in its long, slender bill. A group of white-lipped peccaries roots around for tubers, fruits, and fresh shoots. Nearby, a neotropical otter slides gracefully into a stream. Yellow flowers rain from the crown of a tall vochysia tree as a little spotted cat pounces on an olive green Serro do Mar tyrannulet high in the canopy above. Other small birds, such as the Serro do Mar Tyrant-manakin, flits through the understory, while a black-capped manakin hops about on a small cassia tree trying to attract a mate. This area is also home to the golden lion tamarin, a small and endangered primate known for its radiant gold-orange fur.

Cause for Concern

This ecoregion lies within the most densely populated region of Brazil, so little native habitat remains. The fertile lands of the coastal plain have long been under cultivation for agriculture and have been further deforested for mining and for conversion to coffee, banana, and rubber plantations. Continued threats, including urbanization, industrialization, agricultural expansion, colonization, and associated road-building, come from the rapidly growing population of this developing country.

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