The Palm Savannah It is an extensive neotropical ecoregion that encompasses the lowlands of the south west Amazon basin and meets the eastern fall of the Andes mountain range..
It is located mainly in the north-central part of Bolivia, beginning in a small territory in southeastern Peru and ending in the western part of the southern Brazilian Amazon. It is also known as Sabana del Beni or Beniana plain in Bolivia, tropical humid savanna, and Llanos de Moxos.
It is one of the three major savanna complexes in South America. This area has been identified as a very valuable endemic biodiversity center, where there are abundant animal and plant species, including endangered species..
Its scenarios are dominated by relatively flat landscapes of river plains undulating by hills and low hills. Its territory elevations do not exceed 300 meters above sea level.
It is an area of irrigation and drainage of many rivers, some of them originating from the melting of the Andes. Other elements such as lakes, permanent swamps and bogs can also be found.
Due to the extension of the area of this savannah, the climate can vary considerably. The northern and easternmost area is much more humid during the year and does not undergo as many changes by the seasons. It can receive 3,000 millimeters of annual rain.
To the south and west of the savannah it is more dependent on the seasons. Drier in the dry season and receives rainfall between 1,500 to 2,100 millimeters in the rainy season.
Its average annual temperature ranges between 20 ° and 27 ° C., although sometimes during the day it can reach 37 °. During the austral winter it can receive sporadic fronts of cold winds from the south, causing the temperature to drop to 10 ° C. for short periods.
Between December and May, which is the rainy season, the rivers overflow, flooding the land until they cover 60% of the total area of the savanna and form water belts up to 10 kilometers wide..
There are certain areas where the rainwater stagnates because it is far from the most active rivers in the region, a fact that contributes to the usual flooding of the territory..
In the lower parts, the flood season can last up to ten months. In some areas of medium height, the water can last covering the ground for four months, and in the higher areas only for a short time or sometimes they do not flood at all..
Another important feature of the palm savanna is the fires in the dry season that regenerate the foliage. This occurs between the months of May and October. The vast majority of habitats throughout the territorial extension of the savannah remain intact, and are protected mainly by simple inaccessibility.
Certain human activities endanger the ecosystems of the region. Selective logging puts the land at risk from erosion, and logging near major rivers damages the natural irrigation of rainwater.
In populated areas, the Sabana de Palmeras is subject to extensive pressure from livestock when grazing on the foliage, sometimes causing uncontrolled fires that endanger the natural communities of the region..
In the same way, when cattle circulate, trample and leave their waste, it has a negative impact on the soil. This has caused the nakedness and deterioration of the vegetation of the dense areas of trees.
The vegetation of the Sabana de Palmeras is influenced by the Amazon jungle and the great Chaco. It is home to approximately 1,500 species of plants in the flatter and flatter areas, but there are around 5,000 different types of plants in forests
Most of its species are resistant both to drought and fire seasons and to prolonged rains and floods..
As its name suggests, palm trees reign in this area, especially in the Peruvian region, accompanied by extensive grasslands and concentrations of foliage like random mosaics in the savannah..
These concentrations are called forest islands, which are layers of tropical and subtropical forests of considerable density with plant formations that can be clearly seen isolated in the low topography of the region..
These humid forests can be characterized by plant covers 20 meters high in the lower areas. In the highest and best drained areas of water, the extension of these mantles form vegetal terraces up to 40 meters high or more..
There are some trees in the region whose wood is very good and used for construction. Among those timber plants are the shimbillo tree whose fruits are perfectly edible, the tahuarí or tahebo, which can grow up to 30 meters high and is also recognized for its medicinal uses, and the famous mahogany, which is at risk..
They are also present in the Sabana de almeras: the aguaje tree, which is representative of the Peruvian swampy area, and the huayo sugar tree, known in Colombia as criollo carob and in Brazil as yatobá. Other types of shrubs, lianas and flowering plants such as orchids accompany the forests and grasslands of the region.
Among the species of palm trees that make the region famous, we find a great presence of the shapaja or bacurí, with an average height of 18 meters, and the huasaí or açaí, which produce a round, dark-colored fruit called the fruit of surfers in Brazil and where you also get palm heart.
Other palm trees include the ungurahui, which is native to the Amazon and is scattered throughout South America; the sancona palm that can grow up to 30 meters placing it as one of the tallest species and the Bactris Major southern amazon, a species that has not been studied in great depth.
About 150 species of mammals have been reported in this region. The rivers abound in the homes of boto or Amazonian dolphins, which are famous for being a cetacean mammal adapted to jungle life..
The giant otter also lives near the rivers and lakes of the Sabana de Palmeras. Their numbers have dropped dramatically over the past decades, being considered endangered to the west and south of the entire Amazon, and almost disappeared in Bolivia and Peru..
Among the still common felines of the region can be found the puma, famous for stalking its prey, the jaguar that usually ambushes from the trees and the Moorish cat, which is smaller and usually has a completely uniform brown or black fur..
Many mammals in the area are not found anywhere else in the Amazon, such as the swamp deer or marsh deer and the hairy wolf, which is currently facing extinction..
There are also forest primates such as the famous black and golden howler monkey, the black-tailed monkey or marmoset, the lucachi or marmoset from the Beni river, the huicoco or white-eared marmoset and the Azara marikiná, which is also known as the monkey. night of Azara.
Other endemic mammals include the pygmy shorttail marsupial, the grass rat, the spectral bat, the behn's bat, and the nine-banded armadillo..
Some 509 species of birds have been recorded throughout this savanna. Among them there is the white-bellied tinamou, the great common rhea or ostrich of the Americas, the common chauna howler, the crowned eagle of Azara, the long-tailed moth or cowgirl turtle, the burrowing owl and the colorful blue-bearded macaw that are is at risk.
Reptiles, amphibians and fish are very important animals of the palm tree savanna, as they move life in rivers and lakes. But during floods, their habitat is considerably expanded, which makes them dominate the soils, sometimes for more than half a year..
The black caiman is a large reptile that reigns in the humid areas of the savannah and flooded forests. Its important populations in the Beni area are at risk. They live with the black yacare caiman, anacondas and false cobras.
The charapa arrau turtle, the ox toad, swamp frogs, boas constrictors, aguaje machaco snakes and the famous and poisonous painted toad or arrowhead frog are also found in rivers..
Fish are a very important element for the inhabitants of the area as part of their diet, especially in the flood season where there are more areas for fishing.
Among the most consumed fish are the cachama or black pacú that feeds on fallen fruits, the boquichico or tarpon that likes to live near the bottom where it feeds on organisms in the mud and the grated catfish, which is a long fish of the catfish family known by many names: surubí, maiden and zúngaro.
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