Columbia: Biodiversity Gone Berserk

JAY THIBERT North Durham Nature Club

NORTH DURHAM: On November 9th, the North Durham Nature Club is hosting a presentation by James Kamstra, at the Scugog Memorial Library in Port Perry, at 7 p.m.

James Kamstra is a biologist and photographer, who has travelled widely and led nature tours to many destinations in South and Central America. He is also the president of North Durham Nature Club.

Mr. Kamstra will be discussing the biodiversity of Colombia. It has more species of birds than any other country in the world and also supports an extremely rich variety of insects, amphibians and plants. Colombia is a very mountainous land, containing three parallel ranges of Andes. It has lengthy coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean and an extensive area of Amazon Lowlands. As a result, a wide range of habitats are present, from very wet lowland jungles to deserts, swamps and surrealistic paramo above the treeline. Each has its distinct suite of plant life and wildlife species.

James Kamstra has travelled through a good representation of Colombian biodiversity and will be sharing about his experiences with the land, people and wildlife of this remarkable country.