Amboró National Park

Amboró National Park is located in the western part of the Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia, at the "Elbow of the Andes," where the Cordillera Oriental of the Bolivian Andes bends slightly westward from its northerly course.

One of the most biodiverse parks in the world, the preservation of Amboró is of immense importance to the scientific community.

In 1984, with the help of esteemed conservation biologist Noel Kempff, British zoologist Robin Clark, and other notable researchers, Amboró was legally given the status "National Park" to protect the ecological hotspot from human settlements, hunting, mining, and deforestation.

Located only 40 km (25 mi) west of Santa Cruz, in the Andean foothills of Bolivia, Amboró spans 4,425 sq km (1,708 sq mi), stretching to the borders of Carrasco National Park in the department of Cochabamba.

Noted for its rugged and varied topography, Amboró National Park lies within three distinct ecosystems: the foothills of the Andes, the northern Chaco, and the Amazon Basin. Nowhere else in the world do three such diverse environments coincide, making Amboró a unique host to a wide range of flora and fauna.

Amboró National Park is also part of the Vilcabamba-Amboró Corridor, which begins at the Vilcabamba mountains in Peru and extends to Bolivia.

The altitude in the park ranges from 300 m (980 ft) up to 3,338 m (10,951 ft) in the westernmost part of the park in an area called "Siberia." Most of the park has elevations of between 1,000 - 2,000 m (3,300 - 6,600 ft). Annual rainfall ranges between 1,400 - 4,000 mm (55 -160 in).

Flora and Fauna

Amboró National Park protects parts of several ecoregions: Southwest Amazon moist forests, Chaco, Bolivian montane dry forests and Bolivian Yungas at higher elevations.

The National Park is one of the world's most botanically rich. The current number of documented plant species totals around 3,000.

Vegetational diversity can be attributed to the park's distinct ecosystems: lowland forests, cloud forests, palm forests, tree-fern forests, cactus forests, tropical yungas forests, montane scrublands, pampas, and more.

The park presents a high level of endemism, with 173 species of amphibians and 50 species of toads alone, in addition to 135 species of reptiles.

The number of bird species observed within the area exceeds 912, or more than 60% of the country's total. In addition, 177 species of mammals have been registered; among them, 43 species of bats. Among the large mammals are the spectacled bear (locally known as the jucumari), the jaguar, and the giant anteater.