page_title: Cordillera de Talamanca
section_title: Exploration & classification
hierarchical_section_title: Cordillera de Talamanca / Exploration & classification
caption_attribution_description: Español: Cordillera de Talamanca. Estación Biológica Cuericí. 2850 m.s.n.m.
context_page_description: The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies on the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in the La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two countries.
  This range in the south of Costa Rica stretches from southwest of San José to beyond the border with Panama and contains the highest peaks of Costa Rica and Panama, among them Cerro Chirripó with 3,820 m, and the more accessible high peak of Cerro de la Muerte. Much of the Caribbean areas of the range are still unexplored.
context_section_description: The range is covered by the Talamancan montane forests to elevations of approximately 3000 m. Much of it is covered by rainforests. Above elevations of 1800 m these are dominated by huge oak trees (Quercus costaricensis). Above 3000 m, the forests transition to enclaves of sub-páramo, a sort of shrub and dwarf bamboo Chusquea dominated scrub, above 3,400 m this becomes Costa Rican páramo, a tropical alpine grassland. The sub-páramo and páramo vegetation are subject to regular frosts at night, temperatures above 3200 m can reach 0 degrees Celsius or below, the lowest recorded temperature was -9 Celsius at the Mount Chirripó base camp (the second lowest ever recorded in Central America).  The region has been extensively studied by paleolimnologists to reconstruct the changes in climate, vegetation and fire frequencies (see also Sally P Horn).
  The range is of global importance as it is a centre of endemism for many plant and animal groups and as an important habitat for many large mammals (Baird's Tapir, Puma, Jaguar) and birds that are now threatened in much of their range. An intended hydroelectricity project threatens the existence of the Tabasara Rain Frogs.
caption: View of Cordillera de Talamanca range at Estación Biológica Cuericí.
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