Several months ago, using aerial photographs, I noticed a probable savanna east of Nakum (Peten, Guatemala). With the assistance of our experienced team of local Peteneros and our capable team of FLAAR Mesoamerica, we hiked for kilometers, for hours, to reach this area. We thank the local guides, Teco and his associates, for getting us here.
To finally reach this savanna you climb a steep hill where there is a monumental geological fault, literally, the karst here is “split in two.” After you carefully walk around and then through and across the fault, you climb downhill (or slide downhill on the dry leaves since it is very steep).
Click to view the actual savanna without the trees blocking the view.
Then you reach a point where, all of a sudden, you see kilometer after kilometer of grassland in front of you, framed by the trees (because you are still on the hill). I was so amazed that the first two field trips here I cried with sheer surprise and happiness. Literally, tears flowed down my face.
I know of savannas from the 1970’s, Lake Peten to La Libertad and to Sayaxche. And around Poptun: lots of pine savanna everywhere. But having lived for 12 months at Tikal in 1965, I am more accustomed to hillside and hilltop forests. And from hiking, on foot, to El Mirador (leading tour groups), I know what a bajo is. But to see kilometers of savanna at the base of the forested hill in Parque National Yaxha Nakum Naranjo, wow, what a great reality check for biodiversity.
Then tonight (August 25), while doing research on plant habits (habits, not habitats) and on ecosystems, I came across a typical statement that “savannas are found in southern Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua…etc.” Ouch, Guatemala is not listed. Yet even if these botanists and ecologists have never set foot in PNYNN, there are the better known savannas all across the middle of Peten.
Anyway, this is one of dozens of examples that there is a lot of flora and fauna in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo which is missing from monographs and articles and reports. The park co-administrators: IDAEH and CONAP are facilitating our collaborative research on the plants and fauna: their assistance has allowed us to document that the savannas here in PNYNN are very different than in Belize and totally different than around Poptun, and south and west of Lake Peten Itza (and different than the pine savanna several kilometers northeast of the northeast corner of the Parque Nacional Tikal). In addition to trees, grasses (reeds and sedges). we are noting mosses, lichen, shrubs. A lot more to come.
Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo is well worth visiting to experience the remarkable flora and fauna.
Posted August 26, 2019
