Cueva de los Guácharos

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This article is about a Colombian Natural park. For the Venezuelan cave and national park in Monagas, see Cueva del Guácharo National Park .

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Guacharo
(oilbird)

Spider monkeys (Ateles belzebuth

Tapirus pinchaque

The Cueva de los Guácharos National Park, created in 1960, is the oldest of the 51 protected areas of Colombia. The park is located in the western face of the Colombian Eastern Andean Range (Cordillera Oriental) in the departments of Huila and Caquetá. It covers an area of 90 km² corresponding to the karstic zones of the Magdalena and Caquetá Rivers.

The park is intended to protect the cloud forest and páramo ecosystems. This area hosts one of the last intact oak forests in the country (with the native oak species Quercus humboldtii, Bonpland, Fagaceae, and Colombobalanus excelsa, (Lozano, 1979)).

The park was named after the nocturnal guácharo bird (Steatornis caripensis, ordo Caprimulgiformes, family Steatornithidae), which lives in caves in the park.

1 Biodiversity
- 1.1 Mammals
- 1.2 Birds
2 Environmental issues
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biodiversity

Research to determine the exact number of species in the area is inadequate for a complete statement. Some recorded species are:

[edit] Mammals

**Biodiversity in Cueva de los Guácharos**
Family	common name	range	conservation status	species
Lagothrix lagotricha lugens (Humboldt)	Cebidae\Atelinae	churuco monkey	High Amazon valley	?
Cebus apella (Linné)	Cebidae\Cebinae	corn monkey	Andes\Amazonas	?
Ateles paniscus (Linné) (!)	Cebidae\Atelinae	marimonda	mid and low Amazon valley (!)	? specie is maybe Ateles belzebuth
Mazama americana (Erxleben)	Cervidae\Odocoileinae	páramo deer	Neotropic	?
Mazama rufina (Lesson)	Cervidae\Odocoileinae	páramo deer	?	?
Pudu mephistophiles (De Winton)	Cervidae\Odocoileinae	rabbit deer	North andean: N Ecuador- S Colombia	?
Tapirus pinchaque (Roulin)	Tapiridae	páramo tapir	North andean: N Ecuador- Colombia	threatened

[edit] Birds

With 296 registered species to the date.

[edit] Environmental issues

Settlements for agriculture and cattle; timber industry and hunting
Illegal crops such as coca and opium poppy (heroin)

[edit] References

INDERENA, 1984. Colombia. Parques Nacionales. Fondo para la Protección del Medio Ambiente José Celestino Mutis. FEN Colombia. Bogotá. 264 pp.
Grzimek, Bernhard, 1979. Tierleben. Enzyklopädie des Tierreiches. Band 4-13 (Fische, Lurche, Kriechtiere, Vögel und Säugetiere). DTV. München. ISBN 3-423-03206-5