A team of researchers has begun to answer that question and will publish their full findings in the coming months.

Meanwhile, in a story published this week by The New Yorker,
Douglas Preston tells the story of the team’s mission to understand the rainforest that swallowed up the White City and kept it hidden for so long.

In Honduras, Larsen and his colleagues found a trove.

In total, the team that visited the Mosquitia documented 198 species of birds, 94 of butterflies, 30 of bats and 56 of amphibians and reptiles, as well as numerous plants, fishes, rodents and insects. More than a dozen species have never before been recorded
in Honduras, and many, such as the great green macaw, are endangered or extremely rare. One snake, a false tree coral, documented by the group had been considered extinct in Honduras, having not been seen since 1965.

Several species of game birds and large mammals, while uncommon or extirpated elsewhere due to hunting pressure, are relatively common at the White City. These include mammals such as spider monkeys, peccaries and tapirs, as well as game birds such as
curassows, guans and tinamous.

“This enormous variety of species is indicative of the large area of unexplored, intact forest we found ourselves in,” Larsen said. Using automated camera traps, the team documented an unexpected abundance of jaguars and pumas, large cats
that have become rare in much of Central America. Researchers were especially surprised by the discovery of large herds of white-lipped peccaries, hog-like animals native to the Americas.

The rarity of the wildlife observed by the team underscores the potential threat to this remote rainforest.

“Several species that were easily observed at the study site are scarce in most of their Honduran range,” Larsen said. “The exuberance of life in this concealed valley makes it a high priority for conservation.”

“This is an outstanding Mesoamerican jewel,” Larsen said. “It provides a rare opportunity to conserve one of the last large intact forests regions in Central America.”

Read The New Yorker piece here.

Jamey Anderson is a senior writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.

Source: www.conservation.org