BBC Wildlife December 2019 Seven Worlds,OnePlanet 15
SOUTH AMERICA
probably island-hopped or rafted
from the Old World about 35 million
years ago when the Atlantic was
narrower than it is today, and the
predecessors of today’s pumas, bears,
guanacos, alpacas and vicuñas moved
south from North America at times
when the Isthmus of Panama bridged
the two continents.High-rise bears
The only bear in South America is
the Andean bear, formerly known
as the spectacled bear on account of
the white face markings on some
individuals. It’s the only living
relative of North America’s extinct
short-faced bear, the largest terrestrial
mammalian predator that ever lived.
Most bear species can climb trees
when they are young and tend to give
up when they grow larger, but the
Andean bear is an inveterate tree-
climber throughout its life. Whencertain fruits are ripe, you can even
find several individuals in a single
tree. Wildlife cameraman Bertie
Gregory noticed what skilled climbers
they were, even in the tops of trees.
“What I loved most about watching
them was how they looked like
a familiar black bear, but in an
unfamiliar setting – 30m up
a tree in the middle of a hot and
sweaty cloud forest. It was also
interesting to see how they appeared
to understand the physics of weights
and pivots,” says Bertie.
“Once they’d finished the easy-
to-reach fruits, they’d climb out
onto the thinner branches. If they
realised the branch might break
under their weight, they chewed it,
but not right through. They left a bit
still attached, so they could swing the
end of the branch towards them and
munch on the hard-to-get-at fruit.
All very clever!”2
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SOUTH AMERICA
Ina nutshell
Intensely bountiful
rainforests, arid deserts,
lush savannahs and large
icefields make for a
megadiverse powerhouse
with over 30 per cent of
theworld’s species, many
unique and highly adapted.South America’s marsupials
are descendants of animals
that were here when
Antarctica and Australia
broke away 120m years ago.
CONTINENTAL STATS
THE STATS
SOUTHAMERICA
To t a l l a n d a r e a : 17.84 million km
Human population: 427 million
Population density: 24 per km
Number of countries: 13 (+ 2 dependencies)
Country with the most threatened species:
Ecuador, 2,383 (unlike many countries,
Ecuador has surveyed its wildlife in detail and
so knows precisely what is threatened)*
Conservation threats: habitat destruction,
degradation and fragmentation, fires and
grazing pressures, mining, diseases, over-
hunting, pollution, and climate change*Includes IUCN Red List categories: Critically Endangered,
Endangered and Vulnerable.4 Cotton-topped
tamarins survey their
surroundings. They are
found only in a small
pocket of lowland
forest in Colombia.5 Iguazu waterfalls,
Argentina, where great
dusky swift chicks
must make their first
flight through the
thundering water.