Incredible news! The Orcés Blue Whiptail (Holcosus orcesi) is not extinct! Listed by the IUCN as critically endangered or possibly extinct, and not seen since its discovery in the 1960s, the species was found in the Yunguilla Valley by our colleagues of Tropical Herping.

Incredible news! The Orcés Blue Whiptail (Holcosus orcesi) is not extinct! Listed by the IUCN as critically endangered or possibly extinct, and not seen since its discovery in the 1960s, the species was found in the Yunguilla Valley by our colleagues of Tropical Herping. This project is financed by ZGAP. The Orcés Blue Whiptail is only found in a single valley of the Azuay province, where we established our Yunguilla Reserve in 1998.

Thanks to ZGAP, Tropical Herping and Jocotoco began an ex-situ reproduction program with our partners of Amaru Zoo in Cuenca. We look forward to finding more individuals and collecting data about this critically rare and poorly known species.