Colombia’s Dazzling Biodiversity

In our last blog post, we discussed briefly how Colombia’s topographical and climatic diversity leads to a wide array of settings for adventure tourism.  What we didn’t mention, however, was how the same factors conspire to make Colombia one of the most biodiverse countries found anywhere on this planet!

Colombia is the nature-lover’s dream.  According to The Convention on Biological Diversity, Colombia is one of the world’s very few “megadiverse” countries—despite making up less than 1% of the world’s total land area, within Colombia’s borders one can find more than 10% of the world’s biodiversity.  When you take a moment to let that sink in you realize how truly impressive it is. There are 314 unique ecosystem types within Colombian territory, each of which is inhabited with its own endemic flora and fauna.  Let’s take a look at just a few of the different species that this country has to offer:

The Andean Condor

The Andean Condor

Colombia is home to nearly 2,000 different species of birds—more than Europe and North America combined.  Among these, perhaps the most impressive is the massive Andean condor.  A mature adult Andean condor can have a wingspan of up to 10 ½ feet, making it one of the world’s largest birds.  It’s also a very long-lived creature—individuals have been known to live longer than 70 years!  Though rare, the Andean Condor can be sighted in southwestern Colombia.

Golden Poison Frog

The Golden Poison Frog

The Colombian National Flower

Colombia is also the world’s second-most diverse country for amphibian species and, among many others, is home to the golden poison frog.  This creature has the dubious honor of being perhaps the world’s most poisonous living animal—however, when raised in captivity and separated from their nature food sources, the frogs grow up to be totally harmless!  Traditionally, indigenous groups from Colombia have used the golden poison frog to poison the darts that they hunt with.  They’re found only in primary forests along Colombia’s Pacific coast.

The Flor de Mayo

Unlike the previous selections, this species is not exceedingly rare—but it is Colombia’s national
flower.  It was chosen in 1936 to represent Colombia because it is endemic to the country and its lips grow to be yellow, blue, and/or red, the colors of the Colombian flag.  It is an orchid—yet another family of life in which Colombia can claim to possess the world’s greatest biodiversity.

Before You Go... 

Pick up our Colombia map. This GPS map will give you turn by turn directions to your destination using a point of interest (POI), city point, and/or latitude and longitude, with the ability to preplan driving destinations before getting into your car.

The easy to follow instructions allow you to download and install the map into Garmin BaseCamp desktop software and transfer it to your Garmin GPS in minutes. This installable map is compatible with ALL Garmin GPS units .

It's like having your own personal travel guide with you on your trip!

Screen Capture from our Colombia GPS Map.

Screen Capture from our Colombia GPS Map.

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