Resources
Photo by Roberto García-Roa
Species Lists:
Although new species are always being discovered in our region, we have fairly complete up-to-date lists of the most important vertebrate taxa (including Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles and Mammals). If you would like access to any of these, please email Dr. Kelly Swing requesting specific documents.
Photos by Kelly Swing
Downloadable Photo Identification Guides:
Downloadable Books:
Yasuni Tiputini & the Web of Life
By Pete Oxford, Reneé Bish and Kelly Swing
Foreword by E.O. WILSON
Additional Texts by Anthony Di Fiore, Terry Erwin, Jaime Guerra, Shawn McCracken & Diego Mosquera.
The Yasuní National Park of Ecuador, which encompasses magnificent rain forest between the Rio Napo and Rio Curaray, is reputed to be the biologically richest place on Earth, surpassing all other terrestrial and marine habitats. More precisely, its 9,820 square kilometers are believed to contain more species of plants and animals than any other place of comparable area. The known facts support the claim: for the entire park, 596 bird species, 150 amphibian species (more than the number in all of North America), as many as 100,000 insect species per hectare, and also, growing in just a single average upland hectare, 655 tree species, once again, more than occur in all of North America. The only question about Yasuní’s supremacy is whether there might exist some other, less explored segment along the Amazon and Orinoco Basins that will prove even more diverse. At the very least, the Yasuní National Park is very close to the global pinnacle. And in the world beyond the Amazon-Orinoco region, certainly nothing can approach it.
By David Romo & Diego Mosquera (Eds)
Authors: Laura Abondano, Hernán Alvarez, Sara Alvarez, John G. Blake, Emilio Bruna, Robyn Burnham, Diego Cisneros, Terry Erwin, Stella de la Torre, Anthony Di Fiore, Renata Durães, Kelsey Ellis, Eduardo Fernández-Duque, Simon Ghanem, Brandt Ryder, Jaime Guerra, José Hidalgo, Clintion Jenkins, Andrés Link, Bette Loiselle, Erin Maehr, Diego Mosquera, Franklin Paniagua, Nigel Pitman, Amy Porter, Mayer Rodríguez, David Romo, Christopher Schmitt, Lisa Seales, Charles Snowdon, Gabriela Stocks, Wendy Tori, Kelly Swing, Gabriela Vinueza-Hidalgo, Christian Voigt, Jocelyn Widmer, Pablo Yépez & Laura Zamorano.
This book, winner of the "Science and Arts Award" in the Biological Sciences cathegory of the Municipality of the Metropolitan District of Quito in 2017, presents a valuable compilation on the research that has been carried out over for more than two decades at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ.