Vicuña, Pampa Galeras Barbara D'Achille, Peru Photograph by © WWF-Canon/Y.-J. REY-MILLET   South America: Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru Montane Grasslands and Shrublands   62,300 square miles (161,400 square kilometers) -- about twice the size of Maine Vulnerable

· From Wet to Dry
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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From Wet to Dry

The Central Andean Puna is a high-elevation montane grassland extending along the spine of the Andes, through Peru and Bolivia, southward into northern Chile and Argentina. Connecting the wet puna in the north and west with the dry puna in the south, this ecoregion receives a moderate amount of rainfall, usually between 15 to 30 inches (400-800 mm) each year. Looking out over bunchgrass, shrubs, and wildflowers, you’d see a landscape of snow-capped peaks, mountain pastures, high lakes, plateaus, and valleys. In this high Andes region, you might even see guanacos, wild relatives of the llama, nibbling on the grassy vegetation.

Special Features

Vegetation similar to what grows in the wet and dry punas also grows here and includes tropical alpine herbs, dwarf shrubs, tall bunchgrass tussocks, shorter grasses, and many forbs, lichens, mosses, and ferns. Distinct high-altitude plants and animals make their homes here between the tree line and the permanent snow line, though biodiversity generally decreases as the elevation increases. This puna habitat supports a number of endemic and restricted-range high-altitude species. These include the chinchilla and the vicuña, a small llama-like member of the camel family that lives only at elevations above 11,400 feet (3,500 m) in the high Andes.

	With nearly 60 hairs growing from each follicle, a chinchilla’s fur coat is well adapted to the cold climate of the high Andes--and highly prized for making coats. Once hunted to near extinction for its pelt, the chinchilla is now commercially bred for its fur to protect wild populations.

Wild Side

A spectacled bear ambles through the tall bunchgrass looking for berries along the edge of the neighboring elfin forest. A regional endemic species, the Tucuman mountain-finch, perches on a sedge, picking seeds from a nearby grass stem. A rodent resembling a soft and fluffy pillow, the chinchilla, hops from its rocky hiding place and across the montane grassland to rejoin its colony. On the banks of a high lake, Andean, Chilean, and puna flamingos mingle in a mixed flock, sifting fine sediment with their beaks for algae and small invertebrates. An oasis hummingbird flits through the abundant forbs and herbs in search of nectar, while a small herd of vicuñas ascends the steep hillside. Thick-billed miners, rufous-crowned tit-spinetails, as well as canyon and cactus canasteros are some of the birds that fly among the tussocks in search of seeds, insects, and small berries.

Cause for Concern

Much of the puna has been degraded by grazing herds of domestic llamas, alpacas, goats, and sheep, as well as by people gathering woody material for heating. Introduced and invasive species, as well as uncontrolled fires, cause environmental problems, too.

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