San Leopold, Brazil Photograph by WWF/ D.C. Twichell   Southeastern South America: Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   137,300 square miles (355,700 square kilometers) -- about twice the size of North Dakota Critical/Endangered

· Where the Forest Meets the Grasslands
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Where the Forest Meets the Grasslands

The Uruguayan Savanna ecoregion encompasses the entire country of Uruguay and parts of southeastern Brazil and northeastern Argentina. Sparsely wooded grasslands, gallery forests, open forests, and palm savanna once spread across this region, but now most of these habitats have been converted to agriculture and other uses. In the scattered remnants, a fantastic array of wildlife finds refuge.

Special Features

The gallery forests and the savanna of this ecoregion are each home to a distinct set of plants and animals. In the gallery forests, residual stands of Araucaria trees, an ancient type of conifer, rise into the sky like ghosts from a past landscape, sometimes reaching as tall as 200 feet (60 m). These gallery forests are found in riparian areas, where pampas cats and foxes chase birds and small mammals through marshes and across riverbanks. In the neighboring stretches of savanna, habitats vary. Grasslands mixed with palms and scrub gradually give way to transitional, semi-open forests. Here, small flocks of birds called campo flickers gather on top of termite mounds and anthills to feast on their favorite food.

	Pampas foxes are strange creatures. They like to collect and store objects, such as bits of leather and cloth. They freeze and remain motionless when approached by humans, making them easy targets for hunters, who sell the foxesâ thick pelts. Up to 30,000 pampas fox pelts may be exported annually from Uruguay, even though the species is officially protected.

Wild Side

Along the banks of rivers where the gallery forests grow, marsh deer browse on tree leaves. These deer have large feet with an elastic membrane between the hooves, which may help keep the deer from sinking in the mud while they eat. Maroon-bellied parakeets range through the riparian growth, eating the pulp of palmito palm, the same palm that produces heart-of-palm. In the water, river otters and water opossums swim near La Plata river dolphins. A male plovercrest hummingbird flutters above the river with beads of light glistening on its amethyst chest. An azure jayöperhaps the most endangered of all South American jaysösits on a branch. Habitat loss and competition with other jays are two possible reasons for this birdâs decline in recent years. In the adjacent savanna, a greater rhea, a huge ostrich-like bird, searches the ground for seeds as a yellow armadillo passes by. A margay naps in the branches of a nearby riverside tree. The margay is the only cat whose ankle joints rotate enough for it to climb headfirst down trees, like a squirrel.

Cause for Concern

A hydroelectric plant now stands on the edge of the Rio Negro, replacing the grasslands that once grew there. As cows and other livestock move across the landscape, they devour vegetation and trample soils, often leaving an eroded wasteland in their wake. Conversion of natural habitats to agriculture presents another threat. And the effects of logging can be seen in the western portion of the region, where vast areas have been stripped of native pines and other trees.

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