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The Humid Chaco stretches across the myriad landscapes of southeastern South America, creating a transition zone between the Arid Chaco ecoregion to the west and the humid tropical forests to the east. Parts of this ecoregion are so thick with vegetation that locals have dubbed it El Impenetrable. The region encompasses the northern Paraná River and its Flooded Savannas ecoregion and extends north into central Paraguay. Bogs and other wetlands, grasslands, savannas, and gallery forests come together here in a mosaic of habitats.
In this ecoregion, moist and flooded grassy savannas dotted with palm trees and thorny thickets grow alongside gallery forests, which line the numerous riverbanks. The great variety in habitat type combines with a humid tropical/subtropical climate to produce a wealth of plants and animals. This is the southern limit for many tropical species, including certain species of macaws and monkeys. It remains a haven for wildlife because of its sheer impenetrability by humans.
A trip into the flooded savannas is sure to reveal a multitude of water birds. Here in the textured green landscape of grass and palm trees you will find pools of water filled with colorful pink flamingos and brilliant white and pink roseate spoonbills. You may also see wood storks partly submerge their bills as they walk with mouths slightly open, foraging for food. Other grassland birds, including the rhea (a large, ostrichlike bird) and undulated tinamou, search for seeds along the ground. Marsh grasses rustle as a maned wolf chases a southern screamer, a red-legged, pheasantlike bird. The long-legged maned wolf is not a wolf at all, but rather a large fox! The chase startles a herd of Chacoan peccaries, piglike animals with formidable tusks, and they set off running for a quieter place to munch on grasses and leaves. A trained eye might find a variety of other mammals here too, including giant anteaters, cougars, pampas deer, marsh deer, jaguars, water opossums, and a great variety of bats. Look carefully and you may see a tamandua passing by, sniffing and digging through tufts of grass with its long, prehensile snout to expose a nest of ants--its favorite food. In the forest areas and riverine gallery forests, you can find another set of animals. Here, the elusive margay (a small arboreal cat) nimbly climbs from the canopy to the ground. You might see a soft and silky-furred woolly opossum climbing along lower tree branches, or hear black howler monkeys call out to one another through the forest canopy. A red-and-green macaw takes flight in an eruption of color, drawing the attention of a secretive bush dog. Amid the action, a surucua trogon, a striking bird with a gray back and bright red torso, sits almost motionless on a branch.
Though still a very wild ecoregion, this area is beginning to feel the pressures of humanity. A recently extended highway now bisects this region and will surely accelerate the human impact. Already, agriculture has taken a firm hold on the outskirts of the region. Hunting is a problem, as is the collection of species for the pet trade, feathers, and hides. For the time being, at least, vast expanses of the ecoregion remain relatively untouched. 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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