El Tucuche

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El Tucuche
El Tucuche 45.jpg
height 937  m
location Border area between Tunapuna-Piarco and San Juan-Laventille
Mountains Northern Range
Coordinates 10 ° 43 '59 "  N , 61 ° 25' 4"  W Coordinates: 10 ° 43 '59 "  N , 61 ° 25' 4"  W.
El Tucuche (Trinidad and Tobago)
El Tucuche
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At 937 meters, El Tucuche is the second highest mountain in Trinidad . It is located in the western part of the Northern Range , a low mountain range that runs through most of the north of the island.

etymology

The name "Tucuche" comes from the language of the Arawak , who inhabited large parts of Trinidad when the Spaniards arrived. The Arawak word "tukusi" meant "hummingbird" and was taken over by the Spaniards slightly changed and given an article.

Location and geology

At 937 meters, El Tucuche is the second highest mountain in Trinidad - Cerro del Aripo , further east, is three meters higher. El Tucuche is about halfway between St. Joseph and Maracas Bay on the north coast. It has a double peak , the higher peak of which forms a small plateau. At the foot of the mountain is the village of Loango. Also at the foot of the mountain is the country's highest waterfall, the 92 meter high Maracas Falls. The height of El Tucuche is sometimes given differently in the literature as 936 meters. The official elevation of 937 meters was determined in 2014 by a team of surveyors from the University of the West Indies .

Flora and fauna

A tree frog endemic to Trinidad, threatened with extinction and only found at a few altitudes on the island from around 800 meters, is the Golden Tree Frog (Phyllodytes auratus). The Mount Tucuche Tree Frog (Flectonotus fitzgeraldi) and Urich's Rain Frog (Pristimantis urichi) can also be found below the summit. Also live on the slopes of the mountain howler monkeys and various species of hummingbirds like the Kurzschnabelamazilie ( Amazilia brevirostris ), the Kupferbürzelamazilie ( Amazilia tobaci ), the Black-breasted Mango Hummingbird ( Anthracothorax nigricollis ), the white-tailed Sabrewing ( Campylopterus ensipennis ) that Schmuckelfe ( Lophornis ornatus ) or the red-tailed shadow hummingbird . A Megascolecidae species up to 35 centimeters long can be heard occasionally .

Up to a height of about 800 meters, El Tucuche is covered by lowland rainforest , which turns into cloud forest at higher altitudes . In the lowland rainforest there are around 40 tree species, among which Licania ternatensis (locally called Boisgris), Sterculia caribaea (Mahoe) and Byrsonima spicata (Serrette) dominate. In the cloud forest there are only 15 tree species, among which Roupala montana (Bois Bandé) and Eschweilera trinitensis (Mountain Guatecare) dominate. One plant that grows on the slopes of El Tucuche is Psammisia urichiana, a heather plant with trumpet-shaped, red petals and white tips. Also worth mentioning are Glomeropitcairnia erectiflora, in whose leaf funnels the Golden Tree Frog lives, and the carnivorous Utricularia montana.

history

El Tucuche is said to have been a sacred mountain for the Arawak, who inhabited the region before the arrival of the Europeans, but there is no evidence for this. The only petroglyphs in Trinidad can be found in Caurita, three kilometers southeast of the Tucuche summit. From the 1870s onwards, there was a boom in cocoa plantations in Trinidad, and since the land near the ports of Port of Spain and San Fernando in the west of the island was already occupied by sugar plantations, new cocoa planters had to go east and into the island Avoid slopes of the Northern Range. While cocoa cultivation has not played a major statistical role since the Second World War, cocoa plantations are still operated on the slopes of El Tucuche.

Trivia

A Trinidadian music duo, consisting of the Bunji Garlin guitarist Nigel Rojas and the steel pan player Derron Ellies, is named after the mountain "El Tucuche". A fund of the Trinidadian First Citizens Bank is named after the mountain.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arie Boomert: The indigenous peoples of Trinidad and Tobago from the first settlers until today . Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia 2016, ISBN 978-90-8890-354-0 , pp. 162 .
  2. ↑ Michael Anthony: Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago . 2nd Edition. Printmaster, Marabella 2001, p. 149 .
  3. ↑ Trinidad Newsday of December 10, 2015: Our majestic mountains! Retrieved April 5, 2016 .
  4. ^ Environmental Management Authority: Learning more about our Environmentally Sensitive Species. Retrieved March 28, 2016 . (PDF, 426 kB)
  5. ↑ IslandHikers.com: El Tucuche Climb & Morang Basins .... Sat14th Feb'15 ( Memento from September 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ IUCN Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas: IUCN Directory of Neotropical Protected Areas . IUCN, Gland 1982, ISBN 978-0-907567-62-2 , pp. 343 .
  7. ↑ The Field Naturalist # 2/2012 , p. 22: TTFNC Herpetology Group Trip to El Tucuche. Retrieved March 28, 2016 . (pdf, 7 mb)
  8. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 141 .
  9. ↑ Rishiray.com: Another Thing to Do in Trinidad: Hike El Tucuche. Retrieved March 31, 2016 .
  10. ↑ El Tucuche. Retrieved March 27, 2016 . on YouTube