Gran Sabana

The Gran Sabana was a Pleistocene plant refuge and dispersal centre and the uplands consequently have great floristic and ecological diversity with high levels of species endemism, especially on the tepuis (Sears, 2001a).

Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

The Gran Sabana has more than 60 amphibian and more than 70 reptile species.

Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

The savanna of the Gran Sabana is almost certainly a product of regular burning by their inhabitants from prehistoric times.

Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

The Park is on the Gran Sabana plateau of southeasternmost Venezuela reaching to the border with Brazil and paralleling the Guyanan border to north of the Sierra da Lema and the Rio Carrao; on the west and south it is bounded by the River Caroni.

Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

The Gran Sabana grasslands can be divided into two types: on poor sandy soils extensive bunchgrass savannas are dominated by Trachypogon plumosus and Axonopus pruinosus; on patches of damp richer soils, bush savannas of Stegolepis ptaritepuiensis, S. guianensis and Brocchinia steyermarkii occur.

Canaima National Park, Venezuela 2009

The plant cover of the Gran Sabana is an intricate mosaic, constituted by numerous types of vegetation.

Guyanan savanna 2008

The savanna encompasses the treeless and tree patch mosaic of the Gran Sabana, and occurs as three distinct outliers: the largest spanning northern Brazil, southeastern Venezuela, and southeastern Guyana (also several small patches extending north along the Pakarima footfills); a smaller patch bordering northern Brazil and extending into southern Suriname, and the smallest and most elongate outlier, that occurs in eastern Brazil north of the Amazon extending from near Macapa to near Calcoene.

Guyanan savanna 2008

Endemic bird areas of the Guyanan Highland includes 36 totally restricted to the vicinity of the tepui mountains, most of the endemics are to be found on the Gran Sabana.

Guyanan savanna 2008

The Gran Sabana uplands are gently rolling high plains, formed by sediments of the Roraima Formation, which overlie discordantly the rocks of the Guyana Shield.

Guyanan savanna 2008

The Gran Sabana lies entirely in the eastern section of the Canaima National Park that embraces about 30,000 square kilometers (km2).

Guyanan savanna 2008