This Park in Ecuador is One of the Most Biodiverse Places on Earth
This Park in Ecuador is One of the Most Biodiverse Places on Earth
Yasuní National Park in the Amazon rainforest may have more species of life than anywhere else in the world
By Matt Blitz
smithsonian.com
May 22, 2015
Napo Wildlife Center, an ecotourism lodge in Yasuní National Park.
(Image courtesy of Flickr user Carol Foil)
Deep in the heart of Ecuador's Amazon basin, in the shadows of the Andes and below the equator, lies what may be the most biologically diverse place on the planet. Yasuní National Park in eastern Ecuador is home to millions of species of plants, birds, insects and mammals. It teems with so much life it leaves people lost for words, says Dr. David Romo, co-director of Tiputini Biodiversity Station-Universidad San Francisco de Quito. “People get stuck on awesome. It is hard to use too many words other than awesome because, well, it is,” Romo says with a laugh.
Whether it’s humongous kapok trees, hairy tarantulas, squawking toucans, jumping spider monkeys or fierce jaguars, the diversity of organisms inhabiting Yasuní is astonishing. What is truly hard to fathom, though, is that little of the park has actually been studied. The Tiputini Biodiversity Station was established in 1994 and while scientists have since taken on multiple projects—for example, a recent project identifying a new species of tarantula with distinctive tiger-like marks—there is still much to explore. “If we compare the area of Yasuní to a pillow, (the amount of) information we have is equal to two needle heads on that pillow,” Romo says.
There is no definitive answer to the question of why or how Yasuní became so biologically diverse—the causes may include its high annual rainfall or low variation in temperatures. The park has also been called “an ecological bull’s-eye” due to the fact that it sits at the base of the Andes, along the Amazon and close to the equator—three distinct ecological systems converging to create a wholly unique area.
The park’s abundance of natural resources has turned Yasuní into a battleground of interests, however. While illegal hunting and logging have existed here for many years, the discovery of oil in 1937 underneath the fertile soil of the rainforest created a new threat.
More:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/amazonian-rainforest-one-most-biodiverse-places-earth-180955364/#H4OCq2PfA0JqfgfU.99
