Ecuador Expedition

Herpetofaunal Assemblages of Ecuador

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An expedition spanning three ecologically distinct sites across north-west Ecuador’s Chocó bioregion, before concluding in the western Amazon at Yasuní. Days move between montane cloudforest, lowland primary rainforest, and Amazonian terra firme forest, combining nightly herping excursions with contributions to ongoing local species inventories and monitoring work.

Itinerary structure is subject to change ahead of final confirmation.

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Chocóan Cloudforest

Settling in at around 1200m, where lowland and montane species overlap, producing a number of range-restricted and endemic finds. Based alongside long-term local ecological research, with nightly herping excursions and the chance to contribute to an active reptile and amphibian monitoring programme, including species such as Bothrops and Lachesis.

Lower Chocó Foothills

A short transfer to a family-run conservation site bordering a protected reserve, where we contribute species records toward their first herpetological inventory, directly supporting land protection and future conservation funding for the site.

Lowland Chocó Rainforest

Time in one of the most herpetofaunally diverse non-Amazonian localities on Earth, tall primary rainforest habitat for bushmasters, boas, and a striking range of amphibians, with data shared directly with the host reserve.

Yasuní, Western Amazon

A shift to an entirely distinct assemblage, evergreen terra firme forest, seasonally flooded oxbow lakes, and access to little-known survey sites, contributing further to local partner efforts documenting the region’s herpetofauna. The expedition concludes with transfer back to Quito.

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Equatorial Anole

Anolis aequatorialis

Green Anaconda

Eunectes murinus

Two-striped Forest-Pitviper

Bothrops bilineatus

Smooth-fronted Caiman

Paleosuchus trigonatus

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Scientific Value

This expedition is built around documenting how herpetofaunal communities change across sharply different habitat types, from montane cloud-forest through lowland primary rainforest to Amazonian terra firme, and contributing meaningful occurrence data on protected and privately-held land along the way.

At each site, we work alongside local researchers, conservationists, and specialist guides actively engaged in species monitoring and land protection efforts. Where opportunities allow, this may include targeted morphological or molecular sampling of priority species. Participants are welcome (though never obliged) to join short daily briefings on local research and conservation context — a small gesture of respect to the people and places making the expedition possible, as well as a genuinely valuable window into how field science actually gets done in the tropics.

Species records collected throughout directly support ongoing local inventories, several of which feed into land-protection and conservation-funding efforts at the sites we visit.

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