# Los Cóbanos Natural History Overview

This folder is the site's compact natural-history wiki for Los Cóbanos. It is meant to hold the source-backed facts that are too detailed for the public pages but too useful to leave buried in one long source list.

## What matters most

- Los Cóbanos is not just a beach stop. It is a protected coastal system with rocky volcanic shoreline, reef habitat, mangroves, estuaries, and a broad marine area.
- The reef is unusual on El Salvador's coast and scientifically active enough to keep generating local theses and journal papers.
- The visitor story should stay honest: real ecological depth, but no inflated wildlife guarantees.

## Pages

- [reef/geology.md](./reef/geology.md)
- [reef/biology.md](./reef/biology.md)
- [reef/macroalgae.md](./reef/macroalgae.md)
- [reef/threats-and-restoration.md](./reef/threats-and-restoration.md)
- [fish/intertidal-life.md](./fish/intertidal-life.md)
- [invertebrates/rocky-shore.md](./invertebrates/rocky-shore.md)
- [mangroves/ecology.md](./mangroves/ecology.md)
- [birds/coastal-birds.md](./birds/coastal-birds.md)
- [protected-status/ramsar-anp.md](./protected-status/ramsar-anp.md)
- [reptiles/iguanas.md](./reptiles/iguanas.md)
- [reptiles/sea-turtles.md](./reptiles/sea-turtles.md)
- [wrecks/shipwrecks.md](./wrecks/shipwrecks.md)

## Site angles this supports

- Los Cóbanos is worth the stop even when visibility is not perfect because the shoreline and protected-area ecology are strong above-water draws too.
- The reef story gets better when framed as volcanic shore plus reef biology, not generic tropical-beach copy.
- The strongest new supporting facts are specific numbers and patterns: 74 documented macroalgae species, long-run `Porites lobata` bleaching records, 13 intertidal echinoderm species, and active mangrove restoration.
- The iguana story works best as protected-area effect plus lower hunting pressure, not as a sentimental anecdote.

## Caution

- Treat the natural-history wiki as a synthesis layer. If a claim is surprising, look for the underlying source before moving it into public copy.
- Do not publish species-level claims just because one AI research pass mentioned them. Prefer the UES theses, MARN material, Ramsar, and peer-reviewed papers first.