It cannot descend the cliffs to find suitable conditions in the lowlands — the lowlands are physiologically unsuitable for it.

It is, in the most fundamental sense, trapped on the summit by the same cliffs that made it the extraordinary species it is.

This is the conservation paradox of the tepui sky islands.

The isolation that drives endemism also eliminates the escape routes.

Species that are remarkable precisely because they evolved in isolation have nowhere to go when conditions change, because the isolation that shaped them also confines them.

The response of the international conservation community to this situation has included the designation of the tepui region for protected area status — Canaima National Park in Venezuela, and equivalent designations in Guyana and Brazil — and the inclusion of Canaima in the UNESCO World Heritage list.