Earth is the most beautiful planet of the universe to our knowledge for its complicate and wonderful natural ecological system, in which there are many living species. Nicaragua, while locating at the center of the land bridge connecting North and South Americas, is a country very rich in her natural environment. Many wildlife species of North and South Americas come to congregate here. Nicaragua is a very important country to the natural ecology of Earth.I lived in Nicaragua from 1974 to 1976. During my stay there I visited most of mountains and big lakes in Nicaragua and I have since then built up very strong personal attachment to her land and people. With the ideal of there is no boundary in the world of nature, I started to organize Society of Wildness（SOW）in Taiwan in 1995. I have never stopped thinking of the natural beauty of Nicaragua and hoped to do something to help conserving it permanently. In the meantime my college pal Mr. Chiu Yishing has been doing business successfully in Nicaragua for many years. With his strong political and business networking, he worked very hard and pushed the Nicaragua parliament to pass a bill in 2002 in support of establishing a SOW chapter in Nicaragua.

Well programmed and planned ecological tourism not only helps local economy to develop but also enables local people to improve their livings, and it is beneficial to protect the natural ecology vise versa. For this purpose we have strived with efforts to publish a pictoral illustrative book to introduce the nature of Nicaragua. This project has won the endorsement of H.E. Ambassador Luis Wong of Nicaragua to the Republic of China.With all the efforts, the editorial team of SOW worked deligently for the past several years and they finally accomplished this challenging task.We hope this book will be helpful to promote the ecological tourism in Nicaragua for international visitors.

It is the Cloud Forest that stands out to represent the abundant and multi-faced wildlife of Nicaragua. The seasonal northeast winds of Caribbean bring in the accumulation of moisture by fog at the mountain peak, and formation of dews at the tips of tree branches. The forest is cold and wet and therefore aerial roots grow into like moustaches, tree trunks are covered with orchids, pineapples and many other dazzling epiphytes.

Cloud Forest distribute in the farfetched mountains between Matagalpa and Jinotega such as Kilambe, Benas Blancas, Sasilaya and Musun. At the peaks of some volcanoes such as Mombacho and Maderas of Ometepe Island we can also find similar views. Mombacho Volcano has already developed from lava-covered mountain into well-grown forest. It takes five hundred years for Mombacho Volcano to develop into the end of alternated phase of climax or sub-climax. From the altitude 800 meters and above to the peak, the steepness prevents human destruction and it has formulated a primitive cloud forest belt. The higher elevation toward volcano tips, the more beautiful the forest trees are. The trees are always covered with epiphyte plants and often their trunks are turned into a small garden. Some of these epiphytes have leaves as big as a sink tub and others are orchids or pineapple plants. Near the volcano peaks and under the covering cloud, the trees grow short because of limited sunshine and occasional drizzles. Arrow bamboos are also discovered simultaneously.  Pineapple plants on the tree trunks collect raindrops and nutrition from the air with its glass shape leaves.

Marshes are often formed at mouths of rivers because of seasonal over flooding. Marshes are desirable habitats for migrant birds, waterfowls, and amphibians. Many wading birds such as egrets, curlews are found hovering over or hunting for food in the marshland area.

 Pacific coast dry forest stretches from Mexico to Costa Rica. It also reaches inland into the cloud forest at or above the altitude of 1000m. Therefore many North America dry forest animals can be discovered in this very southern region. Such as Virginian Opossum, hooded skunk, coyote, thicket tinamou, plain chachalaca, turquoise-browed motmot, white-throat magpie-jay and many reptiles and amphibians. Dry forest is the winter home of many North American migrant birds. Amongst those the cut-tail swallows all gather around here.

Central America as part of pacific ring of fire is famed as “chimney of the world”. There are numerous volcanoes in various types. Amongst them 36 are active ones and 43 are likely to erupt. Nicaragua located in the heartland of volcanoes has 40 in total. Of which 7 are active and each has individual eruption history with their unique appearances.

Volcanoes are one of the most important views in Nicaragua. It appears in national emblem, on the national flag, and 90% of Nicaraguans see at least one, two or even three volcanoes in their daily life. Nicaraguans also drink the water come from volcano lakes. Volcanoes of Nicaragua distribute roughly in parallel with pacific coast. Maribio and Dirian volcano ridge stretches over 300 km. It starts from the paralleling Concepcioin and Maderas Volcanoes in Lake Nicaragua to the Cosiguina Volcano in Fonseca Bay of El Salvador border. One after another these volcanoes line up like a necklace.

Weather to travel downstream from San Carlo or upstream from San Juan del Norte , visitors can appreciate similar abundant wildlife. Or through the tributaries visitors can travel into the 4000 square km tropical rainforest Indio Maiz Biological Reserve. Its primitiveness and nature are described by many biologists as the Gem of Central America . There are many precious or endangered animal or botanical species including Howler monkey, white face monkey, spider monkey, jaguar, giant anteater, alligator, toucan, parrot and numerous colorful orchids and butterflies. There are over two hundred different mammals, 600 birds, and 300 reptiles. As for the aquatic life, there are the famous bull shark (Eulama nicaragunesis), saw fish (Rristis antioiuorum) which weighs up to one thousand pounds, and Savalo fish which weighs up to one hundred pounds.

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