A permanent camera-trap network, surveillance patrols and a baseline validated against the official RCE list sustain the monitoring of the conservation targets. The reserve is open to research with the administration's authorization.
The Management Plan measures the condition of each conservation target with indicators the permanent team records on its regular patrols and with the camera network that already exists. The baseline of each indicator is set in the first year of the Plan.
A permanent network of stations across every belt of the area. The colocolo cat (Leopardus colocolo) is the umbrella species: its record per station and season is the indicator for the fauna target. The same network records feral dogs and cats per 100 camera-nights.
Fixed points for the presence of the Critically Endangered freshwater crab and for surface flow in the low season. The area's two Aegla species are the best available bioindicator of water quality.
Annual record of the volcano gruñidor (Pristidactylus volcanensis) in its sector, together with the rock and high-elevation reptiles: Phymaturus darwini, Liolaemus leopardinus, L. schroederi and L. gravenhorstii.
Vegetation cover of the area by NDVI from Sentinel-2 imagery (98.2 % in February 2026), fixed erosion points, hygrophilous forest extent re-traced by spectral signature and survival of the plantings.
Two of the Reserve's own records, verified and documented in the Management Plan. Presence and vegetation belt are declared, not location: publishing the point of a threatened population exposes it to illegal extraction.
One of the most threatened and least known felids in the Americas. An individual was captured by one of the reserve's camera-trap stations, with date, time and temperature stamped by the device itself. The identification was reviewed by Bernardo Segura, a specialist in the species who supports the reserve's permanent monitoring.
The record is consistent with recent literature, which has shifted the species' known range southward and to lower elevations, and it is the southernmost known within the Metropolitan Region.
Endemic exclusively to the Metropolitan Region, it was known from only two localities: El Volcán, its type locality, and Río Clarillo National Reserve. Its presence at El Ajial was recorded by Bernardo Segura and the species has since been observed repeatedly in the same sector of the high-Andean belt. It is not an isolated sighting: it is an established population, and El Ajial is the species' third known locality.
Its monitoring is one of the indicators of the fauna conservation target: that it keeps being recorded in its sector at least two years in three.
El Ajial holds 30 % of the classified species with distribution in the Metropolitan Region and three in four of the region's classified mammals. Representativeness is high for terrestrial vertebrates and medium for plants and birds, but whole groups remain unsurveyed.
Classified species with distribution in the Metropolitan Region according to the RCE list (20th process) present at El Ajial. Fungi and lichens are 19 % of the regional list and the area has no mycological baseline: its first four records, two of them RCE-classified, date from 3 November 2026. Invertebrates, fish and high-elevation amphibians are under-sampled.
Researchers, academic institutions and organizations interested in conducting studies within El Ajial National Reserve may request authorization from the administration by writing to vitia@elajial.cl or through the contact form. Authorizing and registering scientific research is a core activity of the Management Plan, with the location of sensitive species withheld.
All research must align with the objectives of the Management Plan and with the regulations of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service. Please include in your request:
