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At nine o’clock at night, in Darien, only the stars were shining. Only the faint ultraviolet light indicating a white Saturday in the middle of this jungle bordering Panama and Colombia makes this possible. A few minutes after it was placed, the first poll was released for contracts that were sold in the early hours of the morning. A majestic insect with luminous wings flies before the eyes of biologists Saul Hoyos and Mauricio Mazo. “Why do you believe that light comes from?” asks the first. Mazo answers that there are several theories that go from lunar orientation to a predator-avoidance strategy. “A teacher once told me that it was out of curiosity,” Hoyos answers, “and that he answers a lot of us because sometimes that’s the game. Nature is spent playing with data.” “I like this theory better.”
It was this same curiosity that accompanied other biologists to delve into the unexplored region of Tabon del Darien, a piece of Chocó with a biogeography where academics assume 10% of the world’s biodiversity is located. The goal was shared: that the environment be preserved before the mega projects come to fruition or wood. “One cannot be interested in what one does not know. In this region, species have become extinct without us having outgrown them.” Hoyos laments facing a loud crash. This lush forest, filled with centuries-old trees and endless rivers, knows no silence. The chill of the monocles transforms with the sound of toucans and the croaking of tadpoles. This happens all the time.
A sound I’m not familiar with, this majestic region of native forest, is the crossroads of human lands. Since Donald Trump came into the United States government for the second time and painted this road as a bridge to the “American Sueno,” only a few people have dared to enter what has become the most dangerous road in the region. A year later, only the record half a million migrants who crossed in 2024 have fallen and their remains lost along the way: muddy shoes, discolored lanterns, food wrappers, and baby cones, litter the roads biologists travel today and are decorated with rakes, reptile hooks, and Casamariposa.
The Chocó Biogeographical Reserve is the second largest nature reserve on the planet, after the Amazon, and 70% of its area falls under Colombian jurisdiction. Its wealth is due to a series of unique reasons: access to the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, being a bridge between the north and south of the continent, the insulation that the Western Cordillera mountain range provides and the confluence of winds that make it one of the wettest corners of the world. “It is impossible, in an area like this, not to be able to save the world’s most important resources,” sums up Sebastian Vieira, CEO of Corporación Salvamontes Colombia, the organization responsible for the expedition and who also invited Victor Quiroz, herpetologist, Edwin Monera, ornithologist, Sebastián Arango, entomologist, Álvaro Cogolo, botanist, and Valentina Nieto, scientist. Photographer.
For five days, this interdisciplinary group exchanged fancies and knowledge in an adventure that paid homage to the legacy of the Real Expedición Botánica del Nuevo Reino de Granada, a major scientific project sponsored by the Spanish Corona in the 18th century to study, classify and document the flora of the American territories, which were then under its control. The famous Spanish botanist José Celestino Motes traveled 200 years ago with a hundred other researchers and scientific illustrators several times to produce the primer and the broader legacy of taxonomies and classification of species and their medicinal and basic uses today in Colombia.
Although Salvamontes’ team is modest by comparison, there is a key difference that underlies the pride between the two expeditions: now Colombians are discovering Colombia. Valentina Nieto realizes that she has spent her entire life on a project like this and that Motis’s more than 6,000 scientific illustrations have been a reference in her career. However, he has to take another step: “This wealth cannot be left in academia. This is a living heritage, and it is something that we all as Colombians must have,” he says, drawing his brush green. “I hope that we can infect everyone with the love that we have and the enormous universe that exists in a centimeter-long orchid or in a crystalline branch (so named after the transparent inner part through which its organs are visible).”
Half an hour into the trail, Álvaro Cogolo, one of South America’s most famous botanists and discoverer of about 200 new species, stopped in front of a tree. Three steps ago, he got close to the binoculars’ eyes and ended up tearing off a branch. “Austidis walks and there is no Miran,” she says between the laughter of the retired teacher and the teacher in her hand. “Figit is on all three nerves and in the last hours,” he thinks out loud. Saúl Hoyos thought for a few seconds, trying to guess what was happening. “But I look at this dried fruit, the final yama and the gray edge…” Kogolo continued with a shy smile. “It’s time to make sure you’re in the lab, but I’m always sure it’s a new species of organism. Caryodaphnopsis “It represents the first record of this species in the Colombian Caribbean,” says Ilusionado.
Arlequin atelopus fronterizo (One animal isolated alone in Panama and part of an endangered family), Chenilla (from the Fabaceae family) has a round stem and thin leaves Calathea Lasiostacia That nothing was recorded in Colombia… In just five days in Darien, scientists noticed that there were many wild animals that had not been described before in the world, were rarely seen or were just species that had not been recorded in Colombia. “Al Darien is a Disneyland for biologists,” Hoyos says. During this expedition, 95 plant collections were carried out and 59 known plant species were recorded, more than 100 bird species (among them 12 northern migratory species and 1 small species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature), 14 insect species and 28 herpes species (16 amphibian species and 12 reptile species).
Some of these surprises will still be new to science, a calculation of the purity of the ecosystem. “After I found out Crogastor opimus “(A small colorful square) is evidence that the forest you live in is in a good state of conservation,” explains Victor Quiroz, a herpetologist and amphibian. Sebastian Arango, entomologist and assistant: “The dragonflies we found are a very positive biomarker.” Contact point However, biodiversity and its conservation are rich and fragile. “Any human intervention could completely change what we do today,” he explains.
Cogolo presses the new variety between periodic leaves and turns it into alcohol On the same night next to the flowers and fruits, so that you can study them in detail from the laboratory every day after that. This routine is repeated at night, with a drink of water, pieces of smoked meat, and a thousand stories about each other in other jungles, other rivers, and with other groups. “Science does not come from a person, but collective knowledge,” says Hoyos. “There is something new coming, and we are supported by the knowledge that comes from behind.”
Sapinaria “America’s Most Beautiful Palm”
The origin of this expedition goes back to the discovery of Nakhla. For Rodrigo Bernal, one of the most famous people in Latin America, she is “the most beautiful in America.” there Magnificent Sabinaria — In honor of your daughter, Sabina — I was discovered by chance a decade ago when I stopped off on another expedition to Darien to look for her Magnolia samboensis. Subsequent analyzes allowed us to confirm that they were encountering a new family of palms, the Halazgo family, which occurs in botany every 90 or 100 years.
On this sixth field visit, Hoyos confirmed that this variety is endemic to Darien and is a shade species, with very important ecological value. Its large branches are carefully folded with murciélagos, making this technique ideal for avoiding rain. Furthermore, sapinaria retains fallen leaves from other trees and pours them into the trunk as a homemade fertilizer, where other seeds also germinate.
Thanks to Halazgo and funding from the International Palm Society, they were able to open the 50-hectare Sabinaria Reserve, from which the endemic (and indeed magnificent) palm tree breathes something more peaceful. However, this protection was unable to prevent illegal trade. Online, the price of this plant ranges from $100 to $900, and it can be found on ornamental farms in Hawaii.
Biologists have become frustrated with the speed at which some people trade, lamenting that there is profit from illegality, and that on the contrary they discover and describe new species for free. “We do it because we love it and because we know it’s important.” Vieira says. “But it’s just that they don’t pay us to do it, but it’s hard for us to confirm our research in the lab.”
But the taste is super. Biologists’ eyes sparkle like children’s eyes at Christmas. Munira kiridah in application to birds that you have seen or heard; Vieira runs when he sees a fallen tree to see visible plants growing on it and Quiroz celebrates by identifying frogs through his song. “It’s a nice way to spend your life,” Cogolo sums up.
“Hermigas” Darren
Of the thousands of trees that reach the reserve, there are a few that stand out for their beautiful gray trees. Yarumo, like many others, have a symbiotic relationship with the ants found in the area. This one has holes in its trunk and leaves which serve as a house, and these in turn become an army before any milder weather. Likewise, Darren seems to have reached a similar agreement with this group of biologists. The forest made me walk and study, and this team promised to be guardians of the area. This army is increasingly adding more soldiers. One of them is Don Walter Restrepo, an inhabitant of a plot of land adjacent to the reserve, who decided to complement the timber trade through environmental conservation, granting another 50 hectares to this task.
For this team, Walter’s role is a sign that they have “achieved” the area in which they live. Nadia knows what she wants to achieve, rest assured. That’s why Professor Cogolo insists on starting to look with his exploring eyes. “The child who lives near the cliff tends to recognize it, the child who lives next to the mangroves, who goes there to observe… In Colombia, we live in a science laboratory,” he explains from the swing. “In this country, we have to learn to shoot.”