In just 6 days of scientific exploration, a team of 34 scientists, students, photographers and volunteers documented the presence of over 930 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, land snails, and plants including two species never-before recorded in the remote, rugged and lush Sierra La Madera mountain range of Sonora. These discoveries were part of the Madrean Archipelago Biodiversity Assessment (MABA), a three-year project of Sky Island Alliance (SIA), a non-profit conservation organization based in Tucson, Arizona. The project, principally sponsored by a grant from the French-based Veolia Environment Foundation is an ambitious effort to document the biodiversity and to preserve the biologically rich environments of the Mexican Sky Islands. This third major MABA expedition to document the unique animals and plants of the Sonoran Sky Islands was to the Sierra la Madera (formerly Oposura) near Moctezuma in central Sonora, 120 miles south of the Arizona border city of Douglas. Partners for this expedition led by SIA were the Universidad de la Sierra (UNISIERRA, Moctezuma), the Universidad de Sonora (UNISON, Hermosillo), and the Reserva Forestal Nacional y Refugio de Fauna Silvestre Ajos-Bavispe (Ajos-Bavispe National Forest and Wildlife Reserve). This Expedition was a unique collaboration between research biologists and students from four Mexican and two US universities and the Ajos-Bavispe Reserve staff. Read More
