Brazil
The Pantanal Conservation Area is an immense conservation area located in the vast wetlands of the South American interior. Though not quite as isolated as pars of the Amazon Jungle further to the north, The Pantanal is remote, historically unpopulated and filled with one of the largest and most diverse animal populations in the Americas. A thousand bird species and over a thousand other species make their homes here, including some of the largest big cat ranges in the world.
The Pantanal is part of the deep, remote interior of the South American Continent. Sheltered to the north by the Amazon Rainforest and the west by the Andes Mountains, and nearly a thousand miles inland from the densely populated Atlantic Coast, the area escaped most of the worst of the ravages of the 19th and 20th centuries. Part of the Pantanal is a protected reserve, but due to its sheer size of over 100,000 square km, it is proving difficult to completely monitor.
The Pantanal ecosystem is huge, taking up over 1% of the land area of Brazil, the fifth largest country in the world. Almost every South American species can be found here, from commoners like the South American Tapir and Giant Anteater to such rarities as the Giant River Otter and Marsh Deer. Pantanal is also home to the world’s largest population of Jaguar as well as other large cats. Rainbows of fish and bird species add a riot of color to the magnificent reserve.
The Pantanal Conservation Area covers a huge range in Mato Grosso du Sul province in Southern Brazil, spilling over somewhat into Bolivia and Paraguay. The closest major city if Sao Paulo, 500 miles to the east. The park is open year-round. As of this writing no visitor information was available. Web: http://whc.unesco.org (official UNESCO site).
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