Morrocoy NP, Venezuela Photograph by Darcie E Shively   Northern South America: Northwestern Venezuela Mangroves   2,200 square miles (5,800 square kilometers) -- about the size of Delaware Vulnerable

· Scenic Stopovers
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Scenic Stopovers

Like oases in the desert, these coastal mangrove patches provide pockets of protection for fish, mammals, and migratory birds. But that doesn’t mean that everything is safe here: sharks and carnivorous mammals sometimes patrol these patches looking for crabs or other small prey.

Special Features

Concentrated along the Caribbean coast of northern Venezuela, these mangroves are found around river mouths, bays, inlets, and other sheltered areas. They often grow near desert-like stands of mesquite and cactus, providing an attractive layover point for migratory birds and local waterfowl. Specific species range from red and black mangroves closer to the coast to white mangroves further inland. Button wood trees are also common.

	Cattle egrets are opportunistic feeders. They like to accompany cattle and other large ungulates as they graze, darting out to snatch insects and other small animals that are disturbed by the large mammals. The egrets’ favorite foods are grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, flies, frogs, and moths.

Wild Side

The roots of mangroves provide crucial shelter for many small reef fish, which use these areas to bear young. Small sharks often patrol the seagrass beds between mangrove patches looking for crabs. Sea turtles can be seen nesting on beaches, while American crocodiles can be spotted along the riverways. Occasionally, mammals seek refuge here from the heat, looking for crabs or other food among the root networks. But the ecoregion’s most majestic mammal can be found under water—the West Indian manatee. One bird, the critically endangered sapphire-bellied hummingbird, is endemic to this ecoregion, sharing the mangroves with the endangered plain-flanked rail, chestnut piculet, and buffy hummingbird, as well as a host of cattle egrets, little blue herons, flamingoes, spoonbills, wood storks, and other species.

Cause for Concern

Threats include overfishing, pollution by agricultural fertilizers, construction of artificial channels, potential oil spills, tourism, felling of mangroves for wood, and the conversion of land to salt evaporation ponds and shrimp aquaculture facilities.

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