Llanos

_For the Supervillain, look at the page Thanos._
The **Llanos** (Spanish _Los Llanos_, "The Plains"; ) are a very big tropical grassland on flat land east of the Andes Mountains.  The Llanos are in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. Ecologists call them an ecoregion.  They put them in the same group with other tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and places where small trees and bushes grow.

## Geography

The Llanos go east to west. The Andes Mountains are on the west side of the Llanos and the Venezuelan Coastal Range of mountains are north of the Llanos. The Guiana Highlands are to the southeast, and the Negro-Branco moist forests are to the southwest. To the east the Orinoco wetlands and Orinoco Delta swamp forests in the Orinoco Delta.

The Orinoco River is the biggest river in the Llanos.  The Orinoco River goes from west to east. The Orinoco is the biggest and most important river in Venezuela.

## Climate

The Llanos have a tropical savanna climate and tropical monsoon climate. The rainy part of the year is April to November.  The dry season is from December to March. The wettest months are typically June and July. In the southwest, the llanos get as much as  of rain per year in the southwest,  in Apure State, and  per year in the Llanos of Monagas State in the northeast. The average temperature across the whole year is , and it does not change much with the seasons; the coldest months (June, July, December, and January) are only  colder than the hottest months.

## Plants

The Llanos have open grasslands, savannas with some trees, and small forests.  The most common forest in the Llanos is gallery forests that grow next to rivers and streams. The Llanos have grasslands that flood for part of the year _llano bajo_ or "low llano") and grasslands that stay dry (_llano alto_ "high llano").

The grass and woody plants in the llano alto are 30–100 cm high, forming bunches 10 to 30 cm apart. The ground is typically sandy and does not have many food chemicals for the plants. The llano alto covers approximately two-thirds of the Llanos in Venezuela and much of the Colombian Llanos. There are many grasses in the genus _Trachypogon_: species include _Trachypogon plumosus_, _T. vestitus_, _Axonopus canescens_, _A. anceps_, _Andropogon selloanus_, _Aristida_ spp., _Leptocoryphium lanatum_, _Paspalum carinatum_, _Sporobolus indicus_, and _S. cubensis_, and sedges in the genera _Rhynchospora_ and _Bulbostylis_. Woody plants and green plants are legumes in the genera _Mimosa_, _Cassia_, _Desmodium_, _Eriosema_, _Galactia_, _Indigofera_, _Phaseolus_, _Stylosanthes_, _Tephrosia_, and _Zornia_. The trees manteco (_Byrsonima crassifolia_),  chaparro (_Curatella americana_), and alcornoque (_Bowdichia virgilioides_) are the most common. They can grow apart from each other.  When they grow together, they are called _matas_.  The matas can be as small as 12 meters across or as large as a hectare.

During the rainy season, parts of the Llanos can flood.  The flood water can be a meter deep. Then the savannass and grasslands become wetlands.  They become like the Pantanal of central South America. Water birds and other animals come to live in the flooded Llanos. The Llanos that flood are called llano bajo.  The Llanos bajos have soil with more food chemicals in them, so different plants grow there, for example the grass _Paspalum fasciculatum_ and the trees _Copernicia tectorum_ and gallery forest trees.

The gallery forests that grow near rivers have both evergreen forests on the Llanos that flood and semi-deciduous forests in the high Llanos that do not flood. _Morichales_ are forests that flood part of the year.  They have the moriche palm (_Mauritia flexuosa_). Vegas are evergreen forests that flood part of the year.  They grow near the Orinoco river and its smaller rivers. Trees form a canopy 8 to 20 meters high, and include _Inga_ spp., _Combretum frangulifolium, Gustavia augusta, Pterocarpus_ sp., _Etaballia dubia, Spondias mombin_, and _Copaifera pubiflora_.

Semi-deciduous forests grow above flood level. They form a canopy 12 to 15 meters high. The trees that grow there are, for example, _Tabebuia billbergii_, _Godmania aesculifolia_, _Cassia moschata_, _Spondias mombin_, _Copaifera pubiflora_, _Bourreria cumanensis_, _Cordia_ spp., _Bursera simaruba_, _Cochlospermum vitifolium_, _Hura crepitans_, and _Acacia glomerosa_.

Matorrales are places with woody plants that grow 5 to 8 meters high. There are large matorrales in the middles of the Venezuelan Llanos. Scientists think they might have been dry forests long ago. They include woody plants, for example _Bourreria cumanensis_, _Randia aculeata_, _Godmania aesculifolia_, _Pereskia guamacho_, _Prosopis_ spp., _Xylosma benthamii_, _Erytroxylum_ sp., and _Cereus hexagonus_.

## Animals

Fur animals live in the Llanos.  For example, there are white-tailed deer (_Odocoileus virginianus_), giant anteaters (_Myrmecophaga tridactyla_), capybaras (_Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris_), giant armadillos (_Priodontes maximus_), eastern cottontail rabbits (_Sylvilagus floridanus_), Alston's cotton rats (_Sigmodon alstoni_), Hispid cotton rats (_S. hispidus_), _Zygodontomys brevicauda_, and _Oecomys bicolor_.

Many animals live in the gallery forests that grow next to the rivers.  For example, there are the collared peccary (_Tayassu tajacu_), white-lipped peccary (_T. pecari_), South American tapir (_Tapirus terrestris_), white-tailed deer,  red brocket (_Mazama americana_), wedge-capped capuchin (_Cebus olivaceus_), Venezuelan red howler (_Alouatta seniculus_), large rodents like the lowland paca (_Cuniculus paca_), agoutis (_Dasyprocta_ spp.), and Brazilian porcupine (_Coendou prehensilis_), and large cats like the puma (_Puma concolor_), jaguar (_Panthera onca_), and ocelot (_Leopardus pardalis_). The endangered giant otter (_Pteronura brasiliensis_) lives along the Orinoco River and its small rivers.

Some of the largest jaguars in the world live in the Llanos. The male jaguar can weigh over .

The Llanos long-nosed armadillo (_Dasypus sabanicola_) and the short-tailed opossum _Monodelphis orinoci_ live in the Llanos.

The Llanos' wetlands have about 70 species of water birds, for example the scarlet ibis. Many sharp-tailed ibis (_Cerbibis oxycerca_) and white-bearded flycatcher (_Phelpsia inornata_) also live in the Llanos.

There are reptiles in the Llanos: the Orinoco crocodile (_Crocodylus intermedius_), spectacled caiman (_Caiman crocodilus_), Green anaconda (_Eunectes murinus_), and Arrau turtle (_Podocnemis expansa_) live in the flooded places.

## Indigenous peoples

Indigenous human beings who live in the Llanos include the Guahibo people in the western Llanos in Colombia and Venezuela, and the Yaruro people in the eastern Llanos in Venezuela.

## Cow raising and farming

Starting with the Spanish takeover, people have brought millions of cows to the Llanos. An 1856 watercolor painting by Manuel María Paz shows cows eating grass between the palm trees. The word _llanero_ ("plainsman") became the name for the cowhands who took care of the herds. They are like the gauchos of the Pampas or the _vaqueros_ of Spanish and Mexican Texas.

People raised so many cows on the Llanos that the grasslands changed.  Human beings set fire to the grasslands to kill trees and shrubs and grow better grass for the cows.  Human beings brought new grasses from other parts of the Earth because they thought they would be better for the cows to eat.  For example, they brought the African grass _Melinis minutiflora_.  Now, large parts of the Llanos are govered in African grass.

Much of the Llanos now has farms on it, for example rice and corn farms.  Some of the rice fields are in the parts of the Llanos that flood.

## Oil and gas

People look for oil and natural gas in Arauca, Casanare, Guárico, Anzoátegui, Apure, and Monagas. The Orinoco Belt, which is in Venezuela, has a lot of heavy crudeoil in oil sands. The Orinoco belt oil sands are one of the largest in the world, after the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada. All of the non-conventional oil in Venezuela put together , most of which is the Orinoco, is about as much as all the convetional oil in the rest of the world.

## Protected areas

In 2017, scientists said that 105,323 km², or 28%, of the Llanos, is in protected areas, meaning places where the government says no one may harm the plants or animals. Protected areas include Aguaro-Guariquito National Park (5,857.5 km²), Cinaruco-Capanaparo National Park (5,843.68 km²), Tortuga Arrau Reserve (98.56 km²), and Caño Guaritico Wildlife Refuge (93.0 km²) in Venezuela, and El Tuparro National Natural Park (5,549.08 km²) in Colombia.

### In Colombia

- Acacías
- Arauca, Arauca
- Gaviotas
- Maní, Casanare
- Orocué
- Paz de Ariporo
- Puerto Carreño
- Inírida
- Puerto López, Meta
- San José del Guaviare
- Saravena
- Tame
- Villavicencio
- Yopal
- Fortul

### In Venezuela

- Acarigua
- Araure
- Barinas
- Calabozo
- Caripito
- El Tigre
- Guanare
- Maturín
- Puerto Ayacucho
- Sabaneta
- San Carlos
- San Fernando de Apure
- Tucupita
- Valle de la Pascua

## Related pages

- History of Colombia
- History of Venezuela

## Other websites

- Dawn on the Plains Photo Feature, _Havana Times_, Oct 1, 2010.
- The llanos music
- The llanos of Colombia and Venezuela
- Los Llanos de Colombia