South America
Ecuador is the smallest of the Andean countries and at the same time one of the most diverse on the planet per unit of area. Within a few hours you go from the mangroves and dry forest of the coast to the snow-capped volcanoes of the sierra, with páramo above three thousand five hundred metres, and from there to the Amazon, where Yasuní park holds some of the world records for numbers of tree, amphibian and insect species per hectare. A thousand kilometres offshore, the Galápagos archipelago, volcanic in origin and isolated since it formed, holds a fauna that evolved without land predators and that gave Darwin his theory on the origin of species. It was the first country in the world to recognise the rights of nature in its constitution.
National animal: The Andean condor, the national bird, on the country's coat of arms
The Galápagos marine iguana is the only lizard in the world that feeds in the sea: it dives several metres to graze algae off the rocks, expels the excess salt by sneezing jets that whiten its head, and basks on the lava to warm up again. And it does something thought impossible in a vertebrate: during the lean years brought by El Niño it shrinks its own skeleton by several centimetres so it needs less food, and grows again once the crisis passes.
Galápagos has carried out some of the most ambitious invasive species eradications in the world, including the removal of goats from entire islands, which has allowed the vegetation and the giant tortoises to recover. Yasuní overlaps with oil reserves, which has generated a national debate that reached a referendum.
Galápagos year-round, with peak breeding activity between December and May. Yasuní and Cuyabeno in the rainy season for Amazonian wildlife. Antisana and Cotopaxi for the Andean condor.
What is worth looking out for this month in Ecuador?
EndangeredWhale Shark
Rhincodon typus
Now is a good time: Whale shark and hammerhead aggregation at Darwin and Wolf (June to November (cool season))
Critically EndangeredScalloped Hammerhead
Sphyrna lewini
Now is a good time: Whale shark and hammerhead aggregation at Darwin and Wolf (June to November (cool season))
341 species found
Based on what we already know about Ecuador.
