Costa Rica - Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park

Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii), the largest native terrestrial mammal in Mesoameica. 

Sent by Skipy from Costa Rica.

The Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park extends along the border between Panama and Costa Rica. The transboundary property covers large tracts of the highest and wildest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America and is one of that region's outstanding conservation areas. The Talamanca Mountains contain one of the major remaining blocks of natural forest in Central America with no other protected area complex in Central America containing a comparable altitudinal variation. The property has many peaks exceeding 3,000 m.a.s.l. on both sides of the border, including Cerro Chirripo, the highest elevation in Costa Rica and all of southern Central America at 3,819 m.a.s.l. The surface area of the property 570,045 hectares, of which 221,000 hectares are on the Panamanian side. The beautiful and rugged mountain landscape harbours extraordinary biological and cultural diversity. Pre-ceramic archaeological sites indicate that the Talamanca Range has a history of many millennia of human occupation. There are several indigenous peoples on both sides of the border within and near the property. In terms of biological diversity, there is a wide range of ecosystems, an unusual richness of species per area unit and an extraordinary degree of endemism. 

The scenic mountains and foothills contain impressive footprints of Quaternary glaciation, such as glacial cirques, lakes and valleys shaped by glaciers, phenomena not found elsewhere in the region. The property is a large and mostly intact part of the land-bridge where the faunas and floras of North and South America have met. The enormous variety of environmental conditions, such as microclimate and altitude leads to an impressive spectrum of ecosystems. The many forest types include tropical lowland rainforest, montane forest, cloud forest and oak forest. Other particularities of major conservation value include high altitude bogs and Isthmus Paramo in the highest elevations, a rare tropical alpine grassland. Longstanding isolation of what can be described as an archipelago of mountain islands has favoured remarkable speciation and endemism. Some 10,000 flowering plants have been recorded. Many of the region's large mammals have important populations within the property, overall 215 species of mammals have been recorded. Around 600 species of birds have been documented, as well as some 250 species of reptiles and amphibians and 115 species of freshwater fish. Most taxonomic groups show a high degree of endemism. The large extension and the transboundary conservation approach entail a great potential for the management and conservation of an extraordinary large-scale mountain ecosystem shared by Costa Rica and Panama (read more).