Satellite view of the Guayaquil flooded grasslands (partially hidden by clouds), Ecuador Photograph by USGS   Western South America: Western Ecuador Flooded Grasslands and Savannas   1,100 square miles (2,900 square kilometers) -- about the size of Rhode Island Critical/Endangered

· Wetlands to the West
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Wetlands to the West

This relatively small ecoregion lies in southwestern Ecuador, within the delta of the Guayas River Basin, extending south until it converges with the coastal mangroves at the Gulf of Guayaquil. These seasonally inundated grasslands also contain riparian habitat. They are bordered on the northeast by agricultural lands and moist forests, and on the west and east by dry forests.

Special Features

This tropical grassland is dominated by semi-aquatic grasses and scattered with palms. During the dry season, the flat ground is hard-packed mud, and during the rainy season it is covered in standing water. The ecoregion is located just west of Ecuador’s largest and fastest-growing city, Guayaquil. The surrounding areas have been almost entirely deforested. This ecoregion is periodically flooded by the Guayas River, creating large areas of open water that attract numerous aquatic birds.

	Though rare in western South America, flooded grasslands are essential to the life cycles of many creatures that rely on them as breeding or nesting grounds, or as seasonal rest areas.

Wild Side

Land animals disperse across the area during the dry season, but have access only to the peripheral habitat during the flood season. Two large horned screamers sing their duet across the banks of the river. Their large bodies and the forward-curling "horns" on their heads make these birds easy to identify. Quick streaks of green across the sky indicate the presence of threatened red-masked and gray-cheeked parakeets, as a large flock of fulvous whistling-ducks paddle through the shallow inundated grasslands. Along the banks, roseate spoonbills, black-necked stilts, striated herons, brown pelicans, royal terns, laughing gulls, cocoi herons, and white ibises are all busy finding a meal. Yellow and white butterflies add brilliant color to the dark, muddy banks, and ringed and green kingfishers dart past. In the dry season, it’s easier to see animals such as the black-eared opossum, giant anteater, hog-nosed skunk, collared peccary, rice rat, paca (a type of rodent), and Brazilian cottontail rabbit. Above, two-lined bats, sac-winged bats, ghost bats, and fishing bats make their living on the wing.

Cause for Concern

Surrounded by agricultural lands and located near the bustling city of Guayaquil, this habitat is endangered, and only small isolated patches remain intact. Threats include pollution from the Guayas and Daule Rivers, overhunting, fragmentation, colonization, infringing agriculture (rice fields), and the invasion of exotic species. Recent infringements by shrimp farmers who have taken over vast expanses of the river valley are of immediate concern.

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