To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.
There are some special places on Earth that scientists are pretty sure will yield new species when they manage to get there. The deepest parts of the ocean, for example, or remote islands that haven’t been trampled by tourists. But a high-altitude Bolivian cloud forest has staked its claim as a global biodiversity hotspot as biologists announced today that they discovered an amazing 20 species new to science, including a poisonous viper, a super tiny frog, and four species each of orchids and butterflies.
This Shangri-La of biodiversity is known as the Zongo Valley, located about 30 miles from the city of La Paz, Bolivia. It has been protected from human intrusion because of the steepness of the mountain slopes, which range from 2,000 to 17,000 feet in elevation. These slopes are home to a “cloud forest” that forms as rising moist air condenses and produces a constant high-altitude rainfall that supports a wide variety of animals, from the rare Andean bear to tiny dung beetles and unusual plants that resemble insects. Andean cloud forests like the Zongo also produce most of the water that drains into the Amazon River basin. The Zongo’s rugged terrain and steep hillsides have also isolated animals and plants from each other, thereby producing new species over generations.