THE AK-47 rifles hanging at the waists of the camo-clad visitors suggested they had little interest in birds. For ornithologist Andr茅s Cuervo, the knock at his cabin amid the isolated mountains, rivers and waterfalls of the Serran铆a de San Lucas region heralded just one of many unnerving encounters that punctuated his work. 鈥淣obody knew the guerrillas were there, but they knew everything about us,鈥� he says.
For decades, this region of northern Colombia was one of many disputed in a civil war that left 260,000 people dead and 7 million displaced. What was a human tragedy proved a boon for biodiversity, however, as the conflict zones were spared the exploitation that ravaged similar environments elsewhere.
Now, with the conflict largely at an end, at least officially, biologists such as Cuervo are returning in force to discover, record and understand the country鈥檚 astonishing lifeforms, and perhaps to unlock the secrets to novel medicines. But new threats are gathering force. They may not have much time.
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Colombia is by some measures the most biodiverse nation on Earth. It lags behind only Brazil in the total number of species it hosts, but has more species per square kilometre. It is thought to be home to nearly one in 10 of every type of the world鈥檚 flora and fauna, and there are more kinds of bird, amphibian and butterfly here than anywhere else.
That is down to geography: bordering both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, the country lies at the northern end of the Andes mountains, which splits into three parallel ranges, the Western, Central and Eastern Cordilleras. This creates a unique patchwork of environments, from boggy moors to dense Amazonian forests and ice-capped peaks to Caribbean mangrove swamps.
The remote Serran铆a de San Lucas massif lies in the Bolivar department at the northern tip of the Central Cordillera. Its highly diverse tropical rainforest marks where the mountains meet the Caribbean plains. For Cuervo, head of collections at the Humboldt Institute headquartered in Colombia鈥檚 capital, Bogot谩, what drew him there despite the risks was the region鈥檚 350-odd known species of bird. Similar riches attracted colleagues working in other fields.
The researchers would go into conflict areas across Colombia in small groups, hoping for permission to carry out their work from whichever armed group was dominant. Cuervo lost count of how often he was detained. After that knock on the door in 2001, he and his team were held for two weeks. 鈥淵ou never knew if you would be there for years,鈥� he says. Another time, in a remote valley, he recalls machine gun fire cracking 鈥渓ike popcorn鈥� above his head from all directions. 鈥淚t was a close one,鈥� he says.
Then came the peace accord, signed in 2016 by the government and the largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Government officials and the public can now enter the 40 per cent of the country where before they would have hesitated. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not that nobody ever went to these places鈥�, says Cuervo. 鈥淏ut it is [now] a lot easier.鈥�
One peace dividend is a programme known as Colombia BIO to document biodiversity across the country. , Kew in London, more than 100 expeditions will create a catalogue of flora and fauna. The aim is 鈥渢o value biodiversity, understand it, and from this create sustainability鈥�, says Henry Alterio, the programme鈥檚 director. And also to exploit it, tapping into animals, plants and fungi for biotechnology advances, such as finding new drugs.
Some expeditions are guided by former FARC guerrillas, utilising their unique knowledge of the forests. In 20 trips in the past two years, 174 possible new species have been found, 133 of them probably found only in Colombia. With more expeditions to come, and many more species yet to be documented from samples already taken, this could be the tip of a very large iceberg, says Cuervo.
The Humboldt Institute鈥檚 lab in Villa de Leyva, some 120 kilometres north-east of Bogot谩, is a launch pad for many of these trips. There, the shelves of herpetologist Andr茅s Acosta-Galvis overflow with specimens of snakes and frogs gathered in the field. A crate full of jars holds the latest arrivals. 鈥淓ach of these could be a new species,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is just getting the time to process them all.鈥�
Among Acosta-Galvis鈥檚 recent finds are a 鈥済ladiator frog鈥� that uses spikes on its hands to fight rival males, a lizard that climbs with its tail and changes its colours to blend in like a chameleon (pictured), a green-boned frog that sounds like a goat and a snake that emits a smelly excrement when threatened.
Meanwhile, his colleague Carlos DoNascimiento, an ichthyologist, is excited by a discovery made in a remote series of caves in the Santander department. To the untrained eye, Trichomycterus rosablanca, a cave-dwelling catfish, isn鈥檛 particularly interesting. But look closer, and you see that it has adapted so well to turbid waters with no light that it is not only blind, but eyeless. It has also developed a form of teeth outside its mouth that allow it to scale rocks to survive rapid currents.
The fish shows how disparate topographies and the stability of tropical ecosystems have allowed for such evolutionary changes, and how the lack of human interference has permitted their survival. DNA analysis shows T. rosablanca鈥榮 closest relative has eyes, but lacks pelvic fins. 鈥淪equencing the genome of these two species will allow the identification of the genes that are responsible for the development of eyes or fins,鈥� says DoNascimiento.
Those results can be extrapolated to other vertebrate species, including humans. That might allow a better understanding of some genetic anomalies related to blindness in people, for example, providing clues to potential therapies.
The new wave of species could also help trace not only their history and distribution over time, but also answer questions such as the course of past climate change, and when South America divided from North America. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like entering the scene of a crime, what we do is find the past by using the clues of the present,鈥� says Cuervo.
But those clues are in increasing danger of being erased. FARC had strict environmental policies, for example imposing heavy penalties on those who cut down forest without permission. When it demobilised, annual deforestation in Colombia jumped by 44 per cent in a year, mostly in previously FARC-held areas where cattle production boomed and poor farmers or organised mafias cut or burned forest in the hope of claiming the rights to the land.
Nor has the violence entirely disappeared. Peace talks with the second-largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army or ELN, are intermittent and inconclusive. FARC dissidents who refused to hand in their weapons are now estimated to number 2800. In September, three geologists were killed by FARC dissidents in the Antioquia region, home to Colombia鈥檚 second city Medell铆n. Other guerrilla groups are believed to be gaining strength thanks to a boom in the cultivation of coca, cocaine鈥檚 base ingredient, and by the turmoil in neighbouring Venezuela, which serves as a lawless bolthole. 鈥淚t is killing the hope that the peace accord provided,鈥� says Cuervo.
The very reason for Colombia鈥檚 great biodiversity may now prove to be its weakness. Thousands of years of microhabitat stability for tropical creatures means that they are diverse, 鈥渂ut not especially adaptable鈥�, says John Douglas Lynch, a herpetologist at the National University of Colombia in Bogot谩. 鈥淚f they cut down the forest, 90 per cent of amphibians and 70 per cent of reptiles disappear,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he cost of that is horrendous. Entire ecosystems will die.鈥�
Lynch, who has been kidnapped twice, caused controversy in 1993 by naming a species of olive-green forest stubfoot toad Atelopus farci, after the group whose activities had unwittingly protected it. Now, like many human victims of the conflict, .
Lynch, Cuervo and others are on a mission, well aware of the pressures. 鈥淲e have a unique opportunity to do justice to the scale of biodiversity Colombia has,鈥� says Cuervo. 鈥淚t is a race against the clock.鈥�
