Vertebrate cave fauna troglobite and troglophile of the karst system of La Paz, in the Andean Region of Colombia, with notes on local extinction record

Abstract

La Paz is a municipality located in the Eastern Andes of Colombia and has a great variety of hipogean and epigean karstic environments. Different speleological explorations carried out in the last decades in La Paz region have reported the existence of at least 23 subterranean environments including caves, caverns, grottos, holes, and sinkholes, of which the most remarkable due to its vertical depth is the Hoyo del Aire, a Sima-type geological formation with a vertical drop greater than 140 m and a diameter of 130 m. The presence of troglobite and troglophile vertebrate fauna was rereported, in only 17 of the 23 hypogean environments explored. The locations were visited in 2017 and 2019 and the existence of seven genera and 10 species including birds, bats, and fish were recorded, and of these, two species being endemic with their distribution restricted to the department of Santander. Additional data on the species analyzed including origin, common name, geographic distribution, and conservation status following IUCN threat categories are presented. Finally, the local extinction of a bird population extirpated from the Hoyo del Aire subterranean habitat is reported. The authors suggest that the national and municipal environmental authorities recognize the karstic area of La Paz as an area of environmental interest for conservation and regulated tourist use.