|
Cerro Kamuk
Cerro Kamuk (also known as Cerro Pico Blanco) is a mountain in the Cordillera de Talamanca, in La Amistad International Park, in eastern Costa Rica, close to the border with Panama. It rises to above sea level. It is one of the highest mountains in Central America. Indigenous peoples of the area include the Bribris and Cabecar. The area protected comprised four national parks clustered together that became La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. UNESCO declared it a natural World Heritage Site in 1983. It is part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, UNESCO's project shared by eight Central American countries (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico) to help protect the remaining pristine mountain forest and wildlife of Central America. Access A trail has been established to access the peak, which begins in the small community of Tres Colinas (Tres Colinas can be accessed by four-wheel drive from the town of Portero Grande). Access to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around five million in a land area of . An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José, with around two million people in the surrounding metropolitan area. The sovereign state is a unitary presidential constitutional republic. It has a long-standing and stable democracy and a highly educated workforce. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, corporate services for foreign companies, phar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Central America consists of eight countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Within Central America is the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active geologic faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc, there is a high amount of seismic activity in the region, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes which has resulted in death, injury, and property damage. In the pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west and the Isthmo-Colombian peoples to the south and east. Following the Spanish expedition of Christopher Columbus' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tapir
Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabiting Southeast Asia. They are one of three extant branches of Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates), alongside equines and rhinoceros. Only a single genus, ''Tapirus'' is currently extant. Tapirs migrated into South America during the Pleistocene epoch from North America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange. Tapirs were once widespread in North America until the arrival of humans at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago. Species There are four widely recognized extant species of tapir, all in the genus ''Tapirus'' of the family Tapiridae. They are the South American tapir, the Malayan tapir, Baird's tapir, and the mountain tapir. In 2013, a group of researchers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brocket Deer
Brockets or brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus ''Mazama''. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian muntjacs, but only distantly related. About 10 species of brocket deer are described. The genus name ''Mazama'' is derived from Nahuatl ''mazame'', the plural of ''mazatl'' "deer". The common English name "brocket" (from French ''brocart'' < ''broche'', spindle) comes from the word for a stag in its second year, with unbranched antlers. Taxonomy The among ''Mazama'' species has changed significantly in the last decades, and as recently as 1999, some authorities only recognized four species.Now ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tayra
The tayra (''Eira barbara'') is an omnivorous animal from the weasel family, native to the Americas. It is the only species in the genus ''Eira''. Tayras are also known as the ''tolomuco'' or ''perico ligero'' in Central America, ''motete'' in Honduras, ''irara'' in Brazil, ''san hol'' or ''viejo de monte'' in the Yucatan Peninsula, and high-woods dog (or historically ''chien bois'') in Trinidad. The genus name ''Eira'' is derived from the indigenous name of the animal in Bolivia and Peru, while ''barbara'' means "strange" or "foreign". Description Tayras are long, slender animals with an appearance similar to that of weasels and martens. They range from in length, not including a 37- to 46-cm-long (15 to 18 in) bushy tail, and weigh . Males are larger, and slightly more muscular, than females. They have short, dark brown to black fur which is relatively uniform across the body, limbs, and tail, except for a yellow or orange spot on the chest. The fur on the head and neck i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chusquea
''Chusquea'' is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unlike most other grasses, the stems of these species are solid, not hollow. Some animals are, to various extents, associated with stands of ''Chusquea'', for example the Inca wren, monito del monte, and the plushcap. Notable species ''Chusquea culeou'', the chilean feather bamboo or colihue cane, from southern Chile and adjacent western Argentina, is notable as the most frost-tolerant South American bamboo and the only one that has been grown successfully to any extent in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with successful growth as an ornamental plant north to Scotland. The colihue cane was used by the Mapuches Indians to make instruments and as lances during the War of Arauco. ''Chusquea quila'' (in Spanish ''quila''), in contrast to Coli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Páramo
Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement in the northern Andes of South America and adjacent southern Central America. The páramo is the ecosystem of the regions above the continuous forest line, yet below the permanent snowline. It is a " Neotropical high mountain biome with a vegetation composed mainly of giant rosette plants, shrubs and grasses". According to scientists, páramos may be "evolutionary hot spots", that meaning that it's among the fastest evolving regions on Earth. Location The Northern Andean Páramo global ecoregion includes the Cordillera Central páramo (Ecuador, Peru), Santa Marta páramo (Colombia), Cordillera de Merida páramo (Venezuela) and Northern Andean páramo (Colombia, Ecuador) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epiphytes
An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phorophytes. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur, like any other organism. They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that they grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily affect the host negatively. An organism that grows on another organism that is not a plant may be called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens, and algae) or in the tropics (e.g., many ferns, cacti, orchids, and bromeliads). Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National System Of Conservation Areas
National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC, es, Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación) is part of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) of Costa Rica. It is the administrator for the nation's national parks, conservation areas, and other protected natural areas. Created in 1994, it combined three previously separate organisations that had managed laws relating to national parks, wildlife, and forestry. Scope SINAC oversees over 160 protected areas, of which 26 are designated National Parks. Other areas are designated wildlife refuges, biological reserves, national monuments, forest reserves, national wetlands, and protected zones. The entire country of 12,596,690 acres (50,977 km²) is under the jurisdiction of eleven large Conservation Areas which were created in 1998, overseen by divisions of SINAC. Over 25% of the national territory, i.e. 3,221,636 acres (13,037 km²) is included in the national parks, refuges, and protected zones within these e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) is a region that consists of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and some southern states of Mexico. The area acts as a natural land bridge from South America to North America, which is important for species who use the bridge in migration. Due to the extensive unique habitat types, Mesoamerica contains somewhere between 7 and 10% of the world’s known species. The corridor was originally proposed in the 1990s to facilitate animal movements along the Americas without interfering with human development and land use, while promoting ecological sustainability. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is made of four parts: Core Zones, Buffer Zones, Corridor Zones, and Multiple-Use Zones, each with varying availability for human use. Background With the increasing conversion of natural tropical ecosystems to agricultural farms and for other human use, comes growing concern over conservation of local species ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordillera De Talamanca
The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two countries. This range in the south of Costa Rica stretches from southwest of San José to beyond the border with Panama and contains the highest peaks of both Costa Rica and Panama, among them Cerro Chirripó at 3,820 m, and the more accessible high peak of Cerro de la Muerte. Much of the Caribbean areas of the range are still unexplored. Exploration and classification The range is covered by the Talamancan montane forests to elevations of approximately 3,000 m. Much of it is covered by rainforests. Above elevations of 1,800 m these are dominated by huge oak trees (''Quercus costaricensis''). Above 3,000 m, the forests transition to enclaves of sub-páramo, a sort of shrub and dwarf bamboo '' Chusquea'' dominated scrub, above 3,400 m t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance. The sites are judged to contain " cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity". To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be a somehow unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable and has special cultural or physical significance. For example, World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains, or wilderness areas. A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, and serve as evidence of our intellectual history on the planet, or it might be a place of great natural beauty. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
