1. By: Alex Bauman

2. The Llanos is an elongated area 1200-1300 kilometers long that is in the northern region of South America and goes into a northeast curve. It also goes from the Oriental Andes of Colombia to the coast of the Orinoco River as well as being a depression limited by the Andes, the Venezuelan coastal, and the Guiana shield.

3. The Llanos is made up of savanna and forest with wetlands forming or being overflowed during the rainy season. Given that it is a savanna it has a wet season and a dry season, meaning that the wetlands on it will sometimes be flooded and sometimes be dry.

4. The Llanos bajos is the area of the savanna that is flooded during the raining season and the area most likely with the most wetland. The Llanos altos is a higher area than the Llanos bajos and doesn’t get flooded during the rainy season. The richest areas in the Llanos for the fauna is concentrated around the permanent and temporary water sources. One of the many fauna in these wetlands are the capybara, which is the largest rodent in the world.

5. Also present is the anaconda, the largest boa in the world which is over 23 feet long. The wetlands fauna also include neotropical migratory birds: shorebirds like yellowlegs and several special of sandpipers. At least 62 of the bird species in this region are Neotropical migrants. These represent almost 40% of the migratory species in Columbia and Venezuela.

6. The 4 major threats to the Llanos: 1. Agriculture 2. Deforestation 3. Oil industry 4. Dikes and ponds

7. “Columbia: The Llanos Grasslands.” The Nature Conservancy. 1 September 2011. Web. 9 September 2012. World Wildlife Fund. “Llanos.” Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. 2 August 2012. Web. 9 September 2012.