PA047
Narganá Wildlands Area


Country/territory: Panama

IBA criteria met: A1, A2 (2003)
For more information about IBA criteria, please click here

Area: 87,800 ha

Sociedad Audubon de Panamá

Site description (2003 baseline)
The Narganá Wildlands Area comprises the district of Narganá (Corregimiento No. 1) in the Comarca (indigenous reserve) of Kuna Yala (San Blas). The area extends from the continental divide to the Caribbean coast, from the headwaters of the Mandinga, Cangandí, and Cartí Grande Rivers in the west, where it is about 18 km wide, to the vicinity of Ticantiquí in the east, where it narrows to about 5 km. The highest point (899 m) is at Cerro Brewster (Diamma-Yala) at the western extremity. The area is contiguous with Chagres National Park in the west. A gravel road crosses the cordillera from El Llano on the Pan-american Highway to near the village of Cartí on the coas.

Key biodiversity
The globally threatened endemic Speckled Ant-shrike occurs, as do the globally near-threatened Crested and Harpy Eagles, Great Curassow, Russet-crowned Quail-Dove, and Blue-and-gold Tanager, as well as many nationally threatened species. The site contains 6 of 15 species (40%) of the Darién Lowlands EBA, as well as a few of the Darién Highlands. There have been ornithological surveys on the Mandinga River, at Cerro Brewster, and at Nusagandi on the El Llano-Cartí Road, but the area is otherwise poorly known.

Non-bird biodiversity: Mammals recorded or probably occurring include Water Opossum, Slaty Mouse Opossum,* Giant Anteater, Silky Anteater, Northern Naked-tailed Armadillo, Geoffroy’s Tamarin, Western Night Monkey, Brown-headed Spider Monkey, Central American Spider Monkey, Panamanian Spiny Pocket-Mouse, Capybara, Crab-eating Raccoon, Bush Dog, Olingo, Neotropical River Otter, Ocelot, Margay, Jaguarundi, Puma, Jaguar, and Baird’s Tapir (Charnley 1985). The reptile and amphibian fauna is poorly known but includes the frogs and toads Colosthetus flotator, C. inguinalis, Minyobates fulgoritus, M. minutus, Phyllomedusa lemur, Eleutherodactylus gollmeri, E. museosus, and E. pardalis, the salamanders Bolitoglossa biseriata and B. schizodactyla, and the lizards Sphaerodactylus lineolatus, Leposoma southi, Ptychoglossus festae, and Anolis poecilopus (Ibáñez 1997e).


Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Narganá Wildlands Area. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/narganá-wildlands-area-iba-panama on 19/03/2024.