Coi­ba Nation­al Park, off the south­west coast of Pana­ma, pro­tects Coi­ba Island, 38 small­er islands and the sur­round­ing marine areas with­in the Gulf of Chiriqui. Pro­tect­ed from the cold winds and effects of El Nino, Coiba‘s Pacif­ic trop­i­cal moist for­est main­tains excep­tion­al­ly high lev­els of endemism of mam­mals, birds and plants due to the ongo­ing evo­lu­tion of new species. It is also the last refuge for a num­ber of threat­ened ani­mals such as the crest­ed eagle. The prop­er­ty is an out­stand­ing nat­ur­al lab­o­ra­to­ry for sci­en­tif­ic research and pro­vides a key eco­log­i­cal link to the Trop­i­cal East­ern Pacif­ic for the tran­sit and sur­vival of pelag­ic fish and marine mam­mals.