Guyana

América del Sur

236

Documented species

Parks and reserves

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Guyana keeps tropical forest across close to eighty-five per cent of its territory and has one of the lowest population densities in the Americas, which has left enormous expanses of rainforest virtually intact. The interior is occupied by the Guiana Shield, with plateaux, waterfalls and blackwater rivers, and by the Rupununi savannah, a seasonally flooded plain that connects the Amazon and Essequibo basins. Kaieteur Falls, with a free drop of more than two hundred and twenty metres, is one of the greatest single-drop waterfalls in the world by volume. The Iwokrama reserve works as a laboratory for sustainable forest management and holds jaguars, giant otters, harpy eagles and arapaima, one of the largest freshwater fish on the planet.

The nature of Guyana

National animal: The hoatzin, the national bird; the jaguar appears as a supporter on the country's coat of arms

Did you know?

At the top of Kaieteur Falls, among the permanent mist thrown up by the falling water, grow giant bromeliads that collect a small pool of water inside. There lives a tiny golden frog that completes its entire life cycle inside a single plant: it hunts there, sings there, lays its eggs there and its tadpoles grow there. It never sets foot on the forest floor.

Biodiversity profile

Escudo Guayanes (Guayanas)Dato no disponible con precision en fuentes verificadas consultadas

Climate

•Ecuatorial humedo (Af), calido y humedo todo el año con dos estaciones lluviosas

Main biomes

•Selva tropical del Escudo Guayanes (uno de los bloques de bosque tropical mejor conservados del mundo, muy baja densidad poblacional)
•Sabanas interiores (Rupununi)
•Manglares costeros
•Sabana estacionalmente inundable
•Río de aguas negras
•Cascada y meseta de arenisca
•Manglar costero
•Bosque de galería
•Humedal continental

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Costa atlantica con manglares y estuarios de gran relevancia para la pesca artesanal

Flagship wildlife

•Jaguar
•Arpia (aguila harpia)
•Saki de cara blanca
•Tapir
•Delfin de rio (tonina)
•Aguila harpia
•Rana dorada de Kaieteur
•Hoacín
•Nutria gigante
•Águila arpía
•Arapaima
•Oso hormiguero gigante
•Tortuga arrau
•Guacamayo rojo
•Delfín rosado del Amazonas

Notable endemic species

•Saki de cara blanca considerado endemico de la region de las Guayanas
•El carpinterito guayanes (Picumnus minutissimis) es probablemente endemico de Guyana, aunque no confirmado para paises vecinos
•Rana dorada de Kaieteur
•Vencejo del Kaieteur

Notable threatened species

•Dato no disponible con precision agregada en fuentes verificadas consultadas para el conjunto del pais

Notable protected areas

•Parque Nacional Kaieteur (hogar de una de las cataratas de caida libre mas altas del mundo)
•Reserva de Iwokrama (bosque tropical de investigacion y conservacion)
•Reserva Forestal de Iwokrama
•Sabana del Rupununi
•Área Protegida de Kanuku
•Área Protegida de Shell Beach
•Montañas Pakaraima

Main conservation threats

•Mineria de oro (impacto creciente en rios y selva)
•Tala selectiva
•Baja densidad poblacional actua como factor protector relativo frente a otros paises de la region, segun literatura sobre el Escudo Guayanes

Notable natural phenomena

•El Escudo Guayanes es una de las regiones de mayor biodiversidad y menor perturbacion humana del planeta

Conservation

Shell Beach, on the coast, is a nesting ground for four sea turtle species and is managed together with indigenous communities that once caught them. Iwokrama is one of the few places in the world where it is systematically tested whether a tropical forest can generate income without being destroyed.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Kaieteur year-round for the golden frog and the swifts that nest behind the curtain of water. The Rupununi in the dry season for giant otters and birds. Iwokrama at night for jaguars on the forest road.

Informacion cuantitativa limitada para Guyana en las fuentes consultadas; se recomienda una busqueda dedicada adicional en una revision posterior.

Sources: Wikipedia - Biodiversity of Suriname (referencia cruzada al Escudo Guayanes) | Wikipedia - Guianan moist forests

Savanna Rainforest Ocean