The Andes Mountain Range and its wildlife

The mighty Andes from the longest mountain range in the world, extending almost 4,5000 miles along the western coast of South America from northern Colombia to southern Chile.

The Andean Rainforest

The temperate forests and tropical rainforests near the equator have the most exotic plant and animal species in South America. The dimly lit steaming rainforest floor smells of decomposing vegetation. Liana vines grow up tree trunks that also support parasitic fungi, orchids, and air plants. Wildlife lives in the jungles' trees over 100 feet above the forest floor.

Cries of animals and bird song fill the forest. The Howler Monkey's call can be heard as far as three miles away. In the Southern Chilean Forest, the 'huet-huet' bird has a song that sounds like its name. Few bees live in the forest, so the red flowers attract mostly hummingbirds.

More than three million species inhabit the rainforest, including marsupials, frogs, jaguars, parrots, and Chile's rarest mammal, the opossum. Leeches can grow to two feet here. Chile also has a forest of araucarian pine- known as the monkey puzzle tree. More than 70 insect species live in the trees.

Desolate Plains

High, arid steppes from Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia through Peru up to Eucador. on the southern plateau, called the puna, sand-laden, stinging winds bend the sparse vegetation into strange forms, and nights are bitterly cold.

Lizards, rodents, and birds equipped to retain body heat live amoung the thin vegetation under harsh conditions.

The Andean condor, the world's largest birdm feeds on carrion. With its huge wing span reaching up to 10 feet, it soars in mountain thermals and glides long distances searching for food.

Pumas, antlered deer, and relatives of the camel- vicuna, lama, aplaca., and guanaco- live on the high steppes. Now protected, the vicuna was hunted almost to extinctiob for the soft, fine wool on its hide.

Other animals, like the chinchilla rodent, have also survived large-scale hunting.

A living Desert

Many cacti live in the Atacama desert, including the giant candelabra cactus of Peru. Strangely, in summer, far from any sign of water, thousands of honey- scented Calandrina, Manville, and yellow ananuca plants bloom briefly.

The desert sand extends to the Pacific shoreline. The tropidurus lizard and oasis hummingbird hunt crustaceans and worms from weeds exposed by the receding surf.

Mist created by winds blowing over the cold sea current shrouds the coastal desert. Sparse vegetation grows near heavy mist, but winds suck much of the moisture from the found and carry it over the peaks to fall in the other side.