¡El Cóndor Pasa!: Antisana Ecological Reserve and Hacienda Hosteria Guáytara

That glacier-covered mountain is not only a site of snow and ice very close to the Equator, but it is also an active volcano. Its name is Antisana and is the mountain which Antisana Ecological Reserve is named after. See that little shack in the foreground? That was a home of the famous naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.

Laguna Micacocha, an important source of water for the city of Quito.

The name for this type of habitat is páramo, which essentially means “tropical alpine grassland and scrubland. While the landscape may look a little bleak, there is actually some really cool plant and animal life hidden away in the grasses and shrubs

Flower of the Puya, an alpine member of the pineapple family and source of nectar for the giant hummingbird.

Purple gentians growing near tussock grasses and cushion plants.

Individual plants from a cushion plant colony. Cushion plants retain dead organic material below ground to soak up water and preserve nutrients.

Some of the wildlife isn’t necessarily hidden. It’s pretty hard to hide when you have a ten foot wingspan.

That would be an Andean condor, Ecuador’s national bird. The IUCN classifies the worldwide population of this bird as “Near Threatened” and estimates that its population is declining (Source.) Fewer than 100 condors remain in Ecuador, making them endangered in this country. Condors face a variety of problems, including cattle ranchers killing them due to the belief that they eat cattle, lack of food, and habitat loss. Condors principally eat carrion and only take live prey (such as newborn livestock) rarely (Source). In order to provide food for the condors, the Hacienda Hosteria Guáytara, a private ecological area near Antisana, sacrifices cattle to provide food for these gigantic birds, thus aiding in their conservation in Ecuador.

Speaking of Guáytara, its land has hundreds (or potentially thousands) of chuquiragua flowers, which are a favorite food of a very special hummingbird.

The Ecuadorian hillstar is found in no other place but the Ecuadorian Andes. At night it nearly halts its metabolism by going into a state called torpor, which allows it to survive frigid páramo nights (Source). Other hummingbirds also enjoy chuquiragua nectar, including the black-tailed trainbearer.

While found in Quito, Guáytara is simply swarming with them. You can hardly go a minute walking the trails without hearing a male sing.

If you want more information on Guáytara, check out their website. The accommodations are quite nice and the wildlife is spectacular. I saw four condors during breakfast one morning, and you can reportedly see over fifteen at a time on a good day.

Well, it might be a while before I post, since I’m off to the Amazon on Friday and will be staying there for a whole week. I’ll be sure to update if I do anything cool in the next few days, but if I don’t expect another post in a couple weeks!