Ecosystems
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  • NNP Utria is one of the few places in the world where productive and diverse ecosystems, such as mangrove, coral reefs, rocky littorals and tropical rainforest, coexist and interact.

The coral patches of La Aguada, Punta Diego, Cocalito and Playa Blanca offer shelter for 10 of the 16 coral species recorded for the Colombian Pacific, thus housing over 106 fish species and many others of mollusks, crustaceans and invertebrates. Strong intertidal changes cause over 33 hectares of mangrove to become a natural habitat for land species such as small mammals, primates and reptiles during the low tide. The high tide turns the mangrove into a breeding space for fish species seeking shelter amongst the roots of the trees. Once they have grown into large fish, they migrate to rocky littorals and submerged rocks which support artisanal fishing at the Gulf of Tribuga, being covered with coral, sponges and gorgonians. In addition to these marine ecosystems, the tropical rainforest nearly surrounds them following the ridges of the Baudo mountains, thus housing an explosion of biological and social diversity where man and nature have coexisted for centuries.

All this diversity of environments is ideal for the arrival of migrating species that reach the area flying or swimming every year, following their migration routes and finding here habitats adequate for their survival.