Cueva de los Guácharos National Natural Park () is the oldest national park in Colombia. Located in the western face of the Colombian Eastern Andean Range in the departments of Huila and Caquetá, the park covers an area of . The caves formed from the karstic zones of the Magdalena and Caquetá rivers.
The park is intended to protect the cloud forest and páramo ecosystems, as well as one of the world's largest and most accessible colony of namesake oilbirds. This area hosts one of the last intact oak forests in the country, with the native oak species Quercus humboldtii (Bonpl.) and Trigonobalanus excelsa (Lozano, 1979)
Biodiversity
In 2005, the National Natural Parks System identified 296 registered species of birds in the park. Further recorded species are:
+ Biodiversity in Cueva de los Guácharos Species Family Common name Range Conservation status Lagothrix lagotricha lugens (Humboldt) Cebidae/Atelinae Churuco monkey High Amazon valleyvunerable Cebus apella (Linnaeus) Cebidae/Cebinae corn monkey Andes\Amazonasleast concern Ateles paniscus (Linnaeus) Cebidae/Atelinae marimonda mid and low Amazon valleyvunerable Mazama americana (Erxleben) Cervidae/Odocoileinae páramo deer Neotropicdata deficient Mazama rufina (Lesson) Cervidae/Odocoileinae páramo deervunerable Pudu mephistophiles (De Winton) Cervidae/Odocoileinae rabbit deer North Andean: northern Ecuador to southern Colombiadata deficient Tapirus pinchaque (Roulin) Tapiridae páramo tapir threatened
References