Ecuadorian
Biodiversity Project

STUDIES OF ECUADORIAN FAUNA:
CONSERVATION OF CRITICALLY IMPERILED ECOSYSTEMS

For nearly twenty years we have had researched Ecuador’s incredible diversity of life in fragile and imperiled ecosystems. Our goals include discovering new species, rediscovering species thought to be extinct, understanding patterns of biodiversity, and providing sound management recommendations to save wild animals and places. (xanax) So far, we have recorded over 20,000 animals in these rainforests, taken over 100,000 “keeper” photographs and discovered over 30 species previously unknown to science. Read on with the links to your right to find out more, and about how you can help do even more!

Our expeditions take place on both sides of the Andes mountains in both Amazonian and coastal rainforests. The coast of Ecuador, holds some of the most unique and amazing biodiversity assemblages we’ve seen. At one study site our team works a 10+ mile transect going from tropical dry forest, through humid forest (a type of rainforest), into cloudforest. At another we spend multiple weeks in remote, uncharted cloud forest that has been untouched for at least 400 years but is facing threats from an Australian mining company. This has helped determine patterns of biodiversity, discovered new species, and is helping to figure out what can be done to save these fragile ecosystems.

Find out more about our work in our report of initial findings, available in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf), and a publication in Spanish of findings from our first site here (pdf).

For its size, Ecuador is the most biodiverse country on earth. It holds about 8% of all the species of amphibians on Earth and 16% of bird species–all in a country about the size of Arizona!

Many tropical ecosystems are under dire peril–our study regions in western Ecuador are over 95% deforested.

You can help with this important work