Venezuela

Venezuela is a country at the northern tip of South America, with roughly triangular in shape. The national capital, Caracas, is Venezuela's primary industrial, commercial, educational and tourist center. The Venezuelan landscape is made up of high mountains, tropical jungles, wide river plains and arid coastal plains, all of which offer a diversity of natural habitats and many challenges to social integration and economic development. Venezuela lies in the Neotropical Realm, and much of the country was originally covered by moist broadleaf forests. Venezuela is one of 17 mega-diverse countries, with habitats ranging from the Andes Mountains in the west, to the rainforests of the Amazon Basin in the south, through the extensive llanos and the Caribbean coast in the center, and the Orinoco River delta to the east. They include dry scrubland in the far northwest and coastal mangrove forests in the northeast. Its cloud forests and lowland rainforests are especially rich. The fauna of Venezuela is extremely diverse, and includes manatees, Three-Toed Sloths, Two-Toed Sloths, Amazon River Dolphins and Orinoco Crocodiles, which can reportedly reach up to 6.6 meters in length. The country is home to 1417 bird species, of which 48 are endemic. Among the important birds are ibises, ospreys, kingfishers and the yellow-orange Venezuelan Troupial, the national bird. Some of the notable mammals include the Giant Anteater, the jaguar and the capybara, which is the world's largest rodent. Over half of Venezuela's bird and mammal species live in the Amazonian forests south of Orinoco.