ALTOS DE CAMPANA NATIONAL PARK

Altos de Campana became the Republic of Panama's firs national park in 1966, covering an area of 4.925 hectares on the western slope of the Canal and forming part of its basin. Located very near the casts of Chame and its alluvial plains, the protected area rises from an altitude of 400 meters at its lowest point to Chame Peak 850 meters above sea level. This extraordinary lookout point affords not only pesctacular views fo the Canal Basin, but also exceptional vistas of Chame Bay, wich ends in Chame Point, withs its amazing mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Chame River.
This area is part of the igneous landscape of the El Valle de Anton volcano, and its past volcanic activity is clearly reflected in the abrupt terrain, with spectacular cliffs, lava fields, volcanic tors and many other features testifying to its very intense geological history. Average annual temperatures are around 24° C, and precipitation exceeds 2.500 mm per year. The headwaters of the region's main rivers lie in the national park. The Chame, Perequeté and Caimito rivers rise on the Pacific side, while the Canal Basin slope contains the River Trinidad and several of its principal tributaries.
The rough terrain hosts four different kinds of forest communities: moist tropical forest, very moist premontane forest, very moist tropical forest and premontane rainforest. Although this relatively small area has undergone great impacts due to manmade intervention, 26 species of endemic vascular plants still occur there. The last census recorded 198 tree species and 342 species of bushes. Due to their geographical location, the highest parts of Cerro Campana have become a biogeographical island and a center of endemism. Mosses, orchids, bromeliads and epiphytes grow everywhere, and the region's endemic species include Chione campanensis.
There are 39 mammal species, one of the most numerous being the black-eared opossum (Didelphis marsupialis). Also present are the endemic mouse species Liomys adspersus coati (Nasua narica) , crab-eating raccoon (Procion cancrivorus), two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmani) and three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegates), Geoffroy's tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi). 267 bird species have been recorded, of which 48 are migratory. The latter include the particularly interesting kite Elanoides forficatus, whose continental migrations take place between January and February and between june and September and which occurs in large numbers.
Among the spectacular trogons, the orange-bellied trogon (Trogon auratiiventris) is outstandingly lovely and numerous. The forests of the Altos de Campana are also a refuge for other birds with populations that are threatened on the rest of the continent, such as the sicklebill white-tipped (Eutoxeres aquila), the violet-bellied hummingbird (Damophila Julie panamensis) the bronze-tailed plumelesteer (Chalybura urochrysia) etc. The park's 62 species of amphibians and 86 kind of reptiles represent an extraordinary wealth of reptiles, the greatest in all central Panama.
The seven endemic species include the lovely and rare frog Atelopuszeteki, which is found in a very small area of the national park. The others are the salamander Bolitoglossa schizadactyla, the caecilian (Caecilia volcani), gecko Anolis lionotus, lizard Morunasaurus grai, and the snakes Trimetopon barbouri and g. Winia, which have not yet been described. The protected area is also home to the giant frog Leptodactylus pentadactylus, the largest amphibian in Panama, the spiny toad (Bufo coniferus) and the poisonous frogs Dendrobates minutus and Dendrobates autatus