Birding Tours

Most of the continets land mass is in the tropics . A universally accepted patter is that the greatest diversity of terrestrial organisms is found in tropical latitudes-the closer a site is to the Equator, the greater its diversity. A combination of factors creates the appropriate conditions for the diversification of life. One factor is climate stability on both the annual as well as the geological time scale. Stable climate climatic conditions allows organisms, even those as mobile as birds, to remain sedentary. This permits, and in fact favors ,the specialization of an organism on predictable resourses. This fact, coupled with an abundance of water and high local productivity seems to be a good recipe for diversity. Peru is located in the heart of South America, mainly inside the tropical zone and close to the equatorial line.

One of the factor that explains the diversity of birds in Peru is that our natural habitas are still in relatively good condition. Fortunately, most of the developed countries of the world are not located in centers of faunal diversity. If the united States ,with its high levels of habitat destruction in the name of resource exploitation, was located in a diversity center, we would not be lamenting the loss of a few bird species ( such as the passenger Pigeon or Carolina Parakeet) ,but rather the extinction of a whole community of many tens or even hundreds of species. Within developed countries, large blocks of habitats equivalent in size to important tropical endemic bird areas have been completely destroyed. Today, Peru must heed these lessons and avoid the destruction of its resources and diversity.