Cerro Hoya National Park

Cerro Hoya National Park is a protected area in south-western Panama.

Cerro Hoya National Park
Parque Nacional Cerro Hoya
IUCN category II (national park)[1]
Location	Mariato District, Veraguas Province, Panama
Coordinates	7°18′N 80°42′W
Area	333.4 km2 (128.7 sq mi)
Designation	National Park
Designated	1984

Geography

The park is located in the south-western portion of the Azuero Peninsula. Cerro Hoya (1,559 m (5,115 ft)) is the highest peak in the park, and the park's namesake. The park also contains Punta Mariato, the southernmost point of mainland North America.

Environment

The park protects portions of two ecoregions. The Isthmian-Pacific moist forests cover the lowlands and foothills of the peninsula, while the Talamancan montane forests cover higher elevations above approximately 950 meters elevation, including Cerro Hoya.^[2] The montane forests cover 77 km² of the park. These montane forests are an outlier, separated by over 150 km from the main montane forest block further north in the Central Cordillera of Panama and Costa Rica.^[3]

Fauna

Azuero parakeet

Night monkey

Some 225 species of birds have been recorded in the park.^[3] These include populations of crested eagle,^[4] Azuero dove, great green macaw, golden-winged warbler, three-wattled bellbird, great curassow and scarlet macaw. The park and its neighboring areas are the sole habitat of the Azuero parakeet, which has a total range of only 700 km².^[5] The park has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.^[6]

Native mammals probably include the jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, ocelot, Neotropical river otter, Panamanian night monkey, Azuero howler, Central American spider monkey, Panamanian spiny pocket mouse, and Darien harvest mouse. The frog Craugastor azueroensis has been recorded.^[5]