The Treetops: The Adventure of Flying Through the Canopy
The treetops, which together form the forest’s roof or canopy, have always fascinated biologists, ecologists and all lovers of nature, and are so far the last frontier for exploration in tropical forests. Being able to access the treetops has been a privilege reserved for monkeys and birds only. However, nineteenth-century explorers already dreamed of reaching the forest’s roof, it was not until 1929 when the first observation platform was built in a tropical forest. Unfortunately, no data was published, but this initiated the exploration of the forest’s canopy. In the 50s the first observation tower is built out of steel in a forest of Uganda, this allowed us to have an idea of the relationship between the forest floor and the treetop for the first time. But the big discovery occurs in the 70s when a group of intrepid biologists adapted their knowledge of rock climbing and handling ropes to reach the treetops. A decade later, in the 80s, the first bridges between trees that allowed researchers to move through the woods and better understand the interactions that occur at this site (Lowman, 1999) are built.
In 1982, Terry Erwin climbed a Guácimo tree in a tropical forest and sprayed insecticide to collect falling insects. He discovered around 1200 species of beetles in just one tree. Based on this, the estimated diversity of insects in tropical forests is approximately thirty million species, much higher than the previously believed three million species.
Este hallazgo cambió totalmente la forma de ver la diversidad de los bosques tropicales, e hizo que los investigadores dirijan su mirada hacia el dosel. Se sabe ahora que aproximadamente el 70% de la diversidad de un bosque tropical habita en la copa de los árboles y es por esto que en la actualidad se han ideado un sinnúmero de mecanismos para poder acceder a ella, los mismos que van desde globos de aire caliente hasta grúas mecánicas.
En Mashpi nuestra Torre de Observación y la Bici Aérea dan la oportunidad a nuestros visitantes de sentirse como estos modernos exploradores, llegando a lugares donde solo llegan las aves, brindándoles una vista única y la posibilidad de viajar por entre las copas de los árboles descubriendo parte de esta gran diversidad. Desde la Bici Aérea podemos ver árboles llenos de musgos, bromelias, orquídeas y otras epífitas, podemos escuchar el canto de las aves o simplemente contemplar el paisaje. Mientras que la torre de observación nos permite ascender desde el suelo del bosque hasta estar por encima de la copa de los árboles, apreciando cada nivel que forma la estructura del bosque.
