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El Tobogan de la Selva |
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| As its name implies, the "Slide of the Jungle" is a large rock outcropping in the southern Venezuelan state of Amazonas over which a large stream flows for several hundred meters (e.g. left). The site, a short distance from the Orinoco River, is in a small region of large hills that share the same name as the Coromoto indigenous community that lives at El Tobogan. In addition to being the only known locality for the new family Meruidae, there are dozens of other water beetle species that live in the same river, most of them also new to science. There are at least two new genera of Hydrophilidae that are in the process of being described. |
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| Are there more Tobogans? |
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| Due to the human pressures on the original El Tobogan site, locating additional sites where these aquatic communities occur is a conservation priority, in addition to part of the inventory process. Locating comparable habitat in the geographically vast region is hampered by several realities, namely inaccessibility to due lack of roads. Any conventional approach would require substantial and expensive helicopter time coupled with some reliable leads from locals (essentially, a "fingers-crossed" approach). |
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| Enter Google Earth. After a few inquiries, the kind folks at Google Earth provided access to an advanced version of their popular, freely available program for exploring this very question. This powerful imaging tool has allowed us to do "virtual fly-overs" of these remote regions in incredible detail. As an example of the power of this tool, two sample images are below. The first is a tilted view of El Tobogan looking to the southeast, nestled in a valley of the Coromoto mountains. if you look closely around the ends of the Main Slide, you can see the thatched roof buildings of the park. The second image is a close-up of an upstream site informally called "tobogancito", with a photo of the same location. The white arc in the satellite image corresponds to the arc of water flowing into the pool in the photo. (Note: Both images are copyright by Google Earth).
As to the question, the answer appears to be yes: additional slides have been located, mapped, and are awaiting exploration on future expeditions.
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