Araya Peninsula, Sucre, Venezuela Photograph by Luke Mastin   Northern South America: Northern Venezuela Deserts and Xeric Shrublands   2,000 square miles (5,300 square kilometers) -- about the size of Delaware Critical/Endangered

· Embraced by the Sea
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
More Photos

Embraced by the Sea

Located on the northernmost tip of Venezuela, this ecoregion covers a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Caribbean Sea. It has two arms: the arid landscapes and colorful salt lakes of Araya to the west and the mosaics of scrub and bamboo forests of Paria to the east. The ecoregion also includes Isla Margarita, Isla Cubagua, and Isla Coche, just north in the Caribbean Sea. Along the coast, sandy beaches are lined with fishing villages, resorts, coconut palms, and mangroves. The interior is composed of scrub desert, deciduous thorn woodland, pastures, and farmland.

Special Features

This ecoregion is continuous with the La Costa Xeric Scrub ecoregion to the south. It is dominated by cactus and thorn-scrub, forming a thicket that varies in density and height. Precipitation is strongly seasonal, amounting to only about 12 to 20 inches (300-500 mm) annually. In wetter areas, the thicket is tall and interwoven and in some places almost impenetrable. The dryer areas give way to low, open thicket, dominated by deciduous thorn trees and succulents. Characteristic plant species include spiny mesquite, several small legume trees, tree cactus, and other succulents.

	In this parched scrubland, many of the tree species lose all or most of their leaves to conserve precious water during the dry season.

Wild Side

A number of endemic species occur in this ecoregion, including two rodents and several birds. The regionally endemic scissor-tailed hummingbird is unmistakable, with its glittering purple crown and long forked tail. Under the cover of night, a ducky mouse opossum is in hot pursuit of a large land crab, which scurries frantically toward its burrow. An endemic bird, the Venezuelan flower-piercer, uses its curved bill to extract nectar from a guabo quere flower. A branched tree cactus makes a nice roost for a white hawk, while a hog-nosed skunk trots by with its tail raised high in the air. The squawks of white-eared parakeets and lilac-tailed and tepui parrotlets fill the air around a fruiting palm tree, while a blue-capped tanager looks for small fruits among mesquite and cactus. A tamandua, a small relative of the anteater, sits in a treetop under the watchful eye of an ornate hawk-eagle.

Cause for Concern

Grazing, frequent human-induced fires, and conversion of land for agriculture, pasture, and development threaten the remaining habitat in this ecoregion. Tourism is increasing rapidly in this area as people discover what Christopher Columbus referred to as "Paradise on Earth"--a land of white beaches and blue water. Large-scale salt mining is also a threat.

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