Herping in the heart of South America.
The largest freshwater wetland in the world lies near the center of South America in the Upper Paraguay River Basin, at the border of Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. The Matto Grosso is a 95,000-square-mile marshland that is both unique and ecologically significant. It sustains incredible biodiversity because of its isolated location: the convergence of the Atlantic rain forest, Amazon forest, Brazilian savannah, Castinga and Paraguayan Chaco biomes. The Brazilian portion makes up 80 percent and is contained within the states of Matto Grosso and Matto Grosso do Sul. It is 98 percent privately owned. The southeastern one-third of this 59,000-square-mile marshland is designated as the Pantanal.
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