Course info

This is a 2 credit course:

BIO 149AL (section #2557): Field Biology: Ecological and Environmental Field Experience (2 credits)

We will focus primarily on the natural history of the Napo River , which drains into the Amazon, and the cultures of the people who dwell there. Two weeks will be spent in the Napo Province of northwestern Ecuador . The first will be at the Jatun Sacha Biology Station, located on the Napo River about 20 miles east of Tena, the capital city of Napo Province (population 20,000). The second week will be spent further downstream at the Tiputini Biodiversity Center .

 The plants and animals of the Napo Basin have evolved to extremely diverse levels due in part to the area's geologic history and its proximity to the equator as well as the Andes mountains.  To put this species diversity into perspective, while the Jatun Sacha reserve encompasses an area of only about 5,000 acres (about 1/10^th the size of the city of Tempe ), it is host to:

• 2X as many species of trees as are found in all of North America (1500 species)

• over 2X as many butterfly species as found in Arizona (over 800 species identified)

• over 500 species of birds (there are 800 species in US and Canada )

• over 150 species of reptiles and amphibians (as many as in all of Arizona )

There will be numerous opportunities to see a wide variety of birds, mammals, insects, and reptiles and amphibians.