With its uniquely varied landscape and vibrant, diverse cultural influences, Colombia is a true melting pot. So, it’s no surprise that this welcoming country is also one of the most biodiverse.
Only in Colombia, one of earth’s 17 megadiverse countries, can you see pink dolphins jumping and humpback whales migrating, and meet an endemic blue lizard in one trip. The country is home to more than 50,000 species of animals and plants—and houses more bird, amphibian, butterfly and frog species than anywhere else on the planet.
With land divided by three major mountains and bordered by an open coastline, Colombia’s six natural regions – Greater Colombian Caribbean, Colombian Pacific, Western Colombian Andes, Eastern Colombian Andes, the Colombian Massif and the Colombian Amazon-Orinoco – encompass virtually every kind of ecosystem on earth, ranging from wet regions like tropical rainforest and Andean cloud forest to open savannahs and high-altitude moorland (Colombia’s stretch of moorland is the largest on the planet).
Just a few days of travel can bring visitors from desert jungle, with rivers and oceans in between, viewing the new species that have evolved in isolation inside the deep valleys between the country’s three mountain ranges. That geographic idiosyncrasy has led to one of the world’s highest rates of endemism, or native species only found in one place.
The country is likely home to even more species than humans know. Since 2016, the Colombian Bio National Programme discovered more than 150 new species of plants and animals on bioexpeditions to the country’s remote areas.
One of Colombia’s most diverse areas is the Andean natural region, which contains the high mountain environment called the páramo. Absorbing both glacial runoff and moisture from the clouds, páramos are the richest high mountain environment in the world— and over half of the world’s paramos are found in Colombia, where over 700 kinds of plants thrive.
Another unmissable area is Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the small coastal mountain range that’s said to have the most unique (and fragile) ecosystem on earth because of the number of ecosystems it encompasses and of the proportion of endemic and endangered species living there. The range includes everything from tropical coastal jungle to desert, scrub forest to cloud forest and páramo. For this reason, local indigenous people call it the heart of the world.
Because it funnels revenue to organizations working to preserve local environments, ecotourism has become a key part of strategy for protecting Colombia’s ecosystems and wildlife. So come see the country’s dazzling array of wildlife with your own eyes. There’s nothing else like it.
