Great Biodiversity

  Panama is huge on its biodiversity; its tropical habitats are home to some of the most diverse and exotic species of animals on Earth. Over half our country, is comprised  of rainforests, mangrove wetlands and mountain cloud forests, making it a great place for these species to live.

In 2006 the UK’s Darwin Initiative funded a three-year collaborative project led by the Natural History Museum, London, INBio (Costa Rica) and ANAM (Panama). The aim of the Initiative was to generate baseline biodiversity information for the La Amistad International Park (located in Chiriqui)  and a map of the biodiversity. This involved a series of seven multi-disciplinary and international expeditions to remote parts of La Amistad during which over 7,500 plant, 17,000 beetle and 380 herpetological collections were made and deposited in the national collections of Costa Rica and Panama. These expeditions also led to the discovery of 12 plant species, one dung beetle species, 15 amphibian and three reptile species new to science.

Five species of big cats roam the park: pumas, ocelots, margay, jaguars, and jaguarundis. It has 600 species of birds, including the three-wattled bellbird, resplendent quetzal, yellow-green finch, and bare-necked umbrellabird. Three indigenous tribes – the Naso, Bribri, and Ngöbe-Buglé – also live within the park. These indigenous groups live in small, traditional villages.

With that being said, we have put together a list of the most common places where you can experience contact with most of these specimens,, please feel free to ask us about it.