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Biosphere Reserve Sian Ka'an
Country: Mexico.

The great natural wealth of Sian Ka'an is due to the variety of ecosystems that it contains: sea, fringe, coastal, mangroves and forests.

The marine portion covers extensive prairies of submarine grasses that offer refuge and food to multitude of animals, and more than a hundred kilometers of the Great Mayan Reef, a magnet for the divers and the second longest chain of coralline reefs of the world, after the Great Barrier of Australia.

In Sian ka'an there have been identified more than seventy species of corals, as the enormous corals brain that end up measuring up to six or seven meters in diameters. There are also hundreds of species of fish that often form tight gropus, and an immense quantity of crustaceans, as the thorny lobster and mollusks, some of great size, as the rosy snail or flamenco's tongue.

The border of coastal dunes, with their beaches of white sand and their dense vegetation. It harbors an unsuspected animal wealth: near a hundred species of terrestrial birds, besides the marine ones. The plants, some of attractive flowers, are really beautiful.

After the dunes of the coast there begins a fringe of lagoons, swamps, savannas and mangroves. These lands that are cover with water during the whole year or part of it, are called waterlands "humedales". Traditionally useless lands for any human activity, but now it has been proven that they have an enormous ecological and economic importance. The fact that Sian Ka'an embraces an extension so big of humedales is one of the reasons why it was decided to create a reservation.

A very peculiar ecosystem in the humedales of Sian Ka'an is that of the petenes, a mass of trees that can measure up to thirty meters high and rise among the grasses of the swamps. These plant formations are almost unique in the world, because outside of the peninsula of Yucatan, they don't exist only in the North American state of Florida, where they are known as hammocks, and in Cuba, where they are called mount keys. In general they have an oval or circular form and their size vary from some dozens meters till almost two kilometers of diameter. They generate due to the presence of springs of fresh water that sprout amid the swamps of brackish water and they allow the growth of big trees.

Sian Ka'an is a paradise for the observers of birds. Up to 1995 more than 350 species had been identified, from tiny species to gigantic birds that almost equal the height of a small man. There are an extraordinary quantity and diversity of aquatic birds. It is possible, to observe more than seventy species of blue and pedretes, cormoranes, storks, playeritos, sparrow hawks and eagles, chorlos, gallaretas and hens of water, chocolateras, cercetas, ibis, plungers and other varieties.

At the moment Sian Ka'an is almost uninhabited. But it was not always this way. From the heights one can see the serpentine channel that goes from coastal lagoon communicating with the sea, from the archaeological vestiges of the old prehispanic city of Muyil, located 15 kilometers of the coast. This channel, navigable for small crafts and that can be visited in EcoTours, has more than a thousand years of having been built by the ancient Mayas.

This information of Sian Ka'an was provided thanks to the EcoTour operator EcoColors who work in this reserve.

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Mexico: Natural Areas
	Biosphere Reserve Sian Ka'an Country: Mexico. The great natural wealth of Sian Ka'an is due to the variety of ecosystems that it contains: sea, fringe, coastal, mangroves and forests. The marine portion covers extensive prairies of submarine grasses that offer refuge and food to multitude of animals, and more than a hundred kilometers of the Great Mayan Reef, a magnet for the divers and the second longest chain of coralline reefs of the world, after the Great Barrier of Australia. In Sian ka'an there have been identified more than seventy species of corals, as the enormous corals brain that end up measuring up to six or seven meters in diameters. There are also hundreds of species of fish that often form tight gropus, and an immense quantity of crustaceans, as the thorny lobster and mollusks, some of great size, as the rosy snail or flamenco's tongue. The border of coastal dunes, with their beaches of white sand and their dense vegetation. It harbors an unsuspected animal wealth: near a hundred species of terrestrial birds, besides the marine ones. The plants, some of attractive flowers, are really beautiful. After the dunes of the coast there begins a fringe of lagoons, swamps, savannas and mangroves. These lands that are cover with water during the whole year or part of it, are called waterlands "humedales". Traditionally useless lands for any human activity, but now it has been proven that they have an enormous ecological and economic importance. The fact that Sian Ka'an embraces an extension so big of humedales is one of the reasons why it was decided to create a reservation. A very peculiar ecosystem in the humedales of Sian Ka'an is that of the petenes, a mass of trees that can measure up to thirty meters high and rise among the grasses of the swamps. These plant formations are almost unique in the world, because outside of the peninsula of Yucatan, they don't exist only in the North American state of Florida, where they are known as hammocks, and in Cuba, where they are called mount keys. In general they have an oval or circular form and their size vary from some dozens meters till almost two kilometers of diameter. They generate due to the presence of springs of fresh water that sprout amid the swamps of brackish water and they allow the growth of big trees. Sian Ka'an is a paradise for the observers of birds. Up to 1995 more than 350 species had been identified, from tiny species to gigantic birds that almost equal the height of a small man. There are an extraordinary quantity and diversity of aquatic birds. It is possible, to observe more than seventy species of blue and pedretes, cormoranes, storks, playeritos, sparrow hawks and eagles, chorlos, gallaretas and hens of water, chocolateras, cercetas, ibis, plungers and other varieties. At the moment Sian Ka'an is almost uninhabited. But it was not always this way. From the heights one can see the serpentine channel that goes from coastal lagoon communicating with the sea, from the archaeological vestiges of the old prehispanic city of Muyil, located 15 kilometers of the coast. This channel, navigable for small crafts and that can be visited in EcoTours, has more than a thousand years of having been built by the ancient Mayas. This information of Sian Ka'an was provided thanks to the EcoTour operator EcoColors who work in this reserve.