Venezuela’s Angel Falls Stage for New Disney Movie

Disney’s animated movie “Up!”, featuring the striking landscapes of southeastern Venezuela, has opened in many theaters around the U.S. In an interview to the Associated Press, the film’s director and story supervisor discussed the trip they took to Angel Falls and the tepuis (a table-top mountain) of Venezuela and Brazil during the making [...]

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Venezuela’s Chigüire – The World’s Cutest Rodent

Venezuela’s plains region is home to the capybara (in Spanish, chigüire), which is the world’s largest rodent. These herbivores can weigh up to 100 pounds and live most of their lives in water. When they are born, they actually swim better than they walk, according to a zookeeper in Parque del Este in Caracas.
Sadly, chigüires [...]

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Venezuela Recognized for Protecting the Amazon

Venezuela is the nation with the 10th-largest amount of biodiversity in the world. Efforts to protect that biodiversity are highlighted in a new study by RAISG, or La Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada.
According to the study, Venezuela has the second-highest proportion of its Amazon region protected. The Amazonian basin covers an astounding 3 million [...]

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In Caracas, Revolutionary Metrocable Moves Forward

The “Metrocable” that is set to revolutionize transportation in crowded Caracas will open next month. It will reportedly travel 1.8 kilometers through the following neighborhoods: Parque Central, Hornos de Cal, La Ceiba, El Manguito y San Agustín.
What’s so cool about the Metrocable, you ask? For one, it whisks travelers overland through the clouds to reduce [...]

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Venezuela to Help Bolivia Build Recycled ‘Petrocasas’

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales announced today that Bolivia will soon begin building recycled “petrocasas” with the help of Venezuela. These low-cost plastic dwellings are built with waste generated by oil refining, and are providing a solution to economic and environmental pressures. Tens of thousands have already been erected in Venezuela as well as Cuba and [...]

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The Climbing Catfish of Venezuela

Hey science fans! Did you know that Venezuela is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world? You can find animals there that live nowhere else.
Ichthyologists Francisco Provenzano from Universidad Central de Venezuela and Scott Schaefer of the American Museum of Natural History have found a previously unknown species of climbing catfish. Lithogenes wahari [...]

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Sunflowers on the Rise in Venezuela

Sunflowers (girasol in Spanish) grow wild in Venezuela. They are a common sight in fields and on the sides of highways. Despite their beautiful abundance, Venezuela doesn’t produce much sunflower oil. The cultivation of sunflowers has languished for decades while the nation still largely relies on an imported supply of edible oil.
All of that is [...]

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Winds of Change Bring Renewable Energy to Venezuela

Venezuela may be known as an oil country, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t taking steps to explore the renewable energy sources of the future.
News came today that the state oil company PDVSA is beginning to invest in wind power. A Spanish company called Gamesa has been contracted to install and maintain machinery that will [...]

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Caracas Cable Car Eases Commutes

The city of Caracas is in a valley surrounded by hills and mountains. Many people live in the hills and work in the valley, which can mean a long walk to the bus stop. That’s all about to change for residents of San Augustin, Petare, and other high-altitude Caracas neighborhoods thanks to The Bolivarian Cable [...]

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Venezuelan Scientist Aids in Census of Marine Life

The world’s first Census of Marine Life is making a splash, and it is doing so with some help from Venezuela.
The census is an enormous effort to take stock of the past, present, and future of marine life with the participation of seventy nations over the course of ten years. The fourth progress report on [...]

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Venezuela’s Nocturnal “Oil Bird”

Caripe, in the state of Monagas, Venezuela, is home to a nocturnal bird called the guácharo or “oil bird.” The guácharo (steatornis caripensis) uses echolocation to navigate through the dark cave that bears his name. La Cueva del Guácharo is an enormous cavern that goes deep into the earth of eastern Venezuela. There are underground [...]

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Dreaming of Choroni

Just on the other side of Henri Pittier National Park in Aragua, Venezuela, there is lovely little beach town called Choroni. A tiny mountain road leads you up into the clouds and over, into a forest of tall shade trees, rushing creeks, and lush ferns.
The beach itself is nestled beside the coastal mountains that stretch [...]

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