. Cloud Forest Agenda. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 20. Ck>ud forest agenda Map 4. Potential cloud forest distribution and density of threatened bird species in the northern Andes. Number of threatened bird species per 50 km1 â â Potential cloud forest Source: Data from BirdLife International. High levels of endemism are also found amongst the vertebrate fauna of Andean cloud forests. In Peru 32 per cent of the 272 species of mammals, birds and frogs endemic to the country are restricted to cloud forest (Leo, 19951. Mares 11992) showed that although the eastern Andean montane forests occup
. Cloud Forest Agenda. UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Series 20. Ck>ud forest agenda Map 4. Potential cloud forest distribution and density of threatened bird species in the northern Andes. Number of threatened bird species per 50 km1 â â Potential cloud forest Source: Data from BirdLife International. High levels of endemism are also found amongst the vertebrate fauna of Andean cloud forests. In Peru 32 per cent of the 272 species of mammals, birds and frogs endemic to the country are restricted to cloud forest (Leo, 19951. Mares 11992) showed that although the eastern Andean montane forests occupy only per cent of the continental area, they are the habitat of 63 per cent of its endemic mammals. Fjeldsa and Hjarsen 11999] analysed areas of 'hotspot' richness of highland bird species in the Andes, using the distribution in 15-minute grid cells lea. 27 x 27 km) of species that are well established above 2 500 m. The areas identified are mainly humid montane forest and the analysis found that all bird species in the tropical Andes can be covered in just 80 grid cells. Amongst these the 50 highest scoring cells would contain per cent of all highland birds and per cent of all those classified as endangered. 'Because of the aggregated (or nested) distribution of the endemic species, the total Andean [bird] fauna might be conserved in less than two percent of the land area' (Fjeldsa and Hjarsen, 1999). Species inventories and analyses of endemism have rarely been undertaken for invertebrates in cloud forests. However, Anderson and Ashe (2000) surveyed 13 cloud forest sites in Honduras for beetles that inhabit leaf litter and found 173 of 293 species ( percent) of Curculonidae and 126 of 224 species ( percent) of Staphylinidae were restricted to single sites. .One of the consequences of the high levels of endemism in cloud forests is the regular discovery of new species, even for well-known groups such as birds. For example, in the Andes two narrowly end
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