Fauna in Costa Rica
Taken from CANATUR at
www.tourism.co.cr
Costa Rica possesses a rich and abundant
fauna. The sheer number and variety of
its species have made Costa
Rica one of the most admired territories
on the planet when it comes to biodiversity.
More than 200 species of mammals, around
850 species of birds, almost 200 types
of amphibians and 220 species of reptiles
inhabit these lands.
Many tourist activities are sustained
in harmony with wild animals. The mountains
give shelter to the observation of birds,
whose admirers lift their gazes toward
the treetops in an attempt to spot their
nests. The best places for bird watching
are Braulio Carrillo National Park and
its surroundings, Monteverde, Talamanca,
and the Osa Peninsula.
Every year on the Atlantic and Pacific
Coast, one can observe the arrival of
the turtles to lay their eggs in the soft
sand of the beaches. Guided tours are
organized to show you this marvelous demonstration
of life itself, without adversely affecting
the turtles.
Almost any place in the country is a good
place to see hummingbirds, doves, sloths,
butterflies and, in some places, a snake
or giant lizard may surprise you.
Local guides can show you the areas where
this species are most commonly seen, whether
you wish to observe them or avoid them!
With more than 850 species of birds, all
found within a tight geographic area,
Costa Rica offers birders of all levels
of expertise and unrivaled birdwatching
experience during their stay in the country.
From the oak forest of the Talamanca Mountains,
Central America's highest mountain range,
to the cloudforests of Monteverde or Braulio
Carrillo National Park, to the lowland
rainforest of the Osa Peninsula, birders
will discover a rich variety of habitats
filled with wonderfully diverse groups
of birds.
The best advice for birding in Costa Rica
is to visit several different habitats,
hire a local guide who specializes in
birdwatching and come prepared with the
"Birds of Costa Rica". This
excellent guide, written by Gary Stiles
of the University of Costa Rica and Alexander
Skutch, is readily available from Cornell
University Press. Birders will find well
- drawn illustrations as well as helpful
information about habits, calls and plumage
in this classic book, which also lists
key areas for productive birdwatching
and provides useful hints about clothing,
insect repellents, etc.
Some of the birds described could have
sprung straight from the imagination of
Dr. Seuss. Take the Umbrella Bird, for
example, with its topknot of fine feathers
that make the bird look like it's wearing
an umbrella on its head (which would be
just the thing in the wet cloudforest
where it lives). Or the Three - Wattled
Bellbird, which doesn't say "Ding,
dong", or sound like a bell at all.
It goes "BONK!"
Other birds could have materialized from
the pages of childhood books of fantasy.
The unbelievably beautiful Resplendent
Quetzal, with its iridescent plumage that
gleams emerald green or shines like polished
metal, is a bird that figures prominently
in pre - Columbian mythology throughout
Central America and whose feathers were
prized like gold or jade. The quetzal
can be easily seen in Costa Rica, at Cerro
de la Muerte or Monteverde, an awe - inspiring
sight that will stay with birdwatchers
forever. The Scarlet Macaw, another beautiful
bird whose populations are dwindling throughout
Central America, can still be seen in
Costa Rica, especially at the Carara Biological
Reserve.
Birders out on the trail in Costa Rica's
forests should keep an eye out for mixed
flocks foraging on certain types of food,
especially fruit, in the forest canopy.
They should also watch for ant swarms,
a tropical phenomena in which migrating
groups of vicious army ants stir up other
insects and even small animals as they
move along the forest floor. Ant swarms
are accompanied by a number of bird species,
which feast not on the army ants but on
the insects they stir up. Species most
frequently seen with an ant swarm are
antbirds (naturally), tanagers, manakins
and wrens.
Thanks to the excellent diversity of birds
living in a variety of habitats that are
easily accessible, to the availability
of knowledgeable, local guides, and to
safe, convenient trails, Costa Rica has
become one of the worlds' most popular
birdwatching destinations. Few, if any,
birdwatchers leave the country without
having exceeded their highest expectations
in a tropical country
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Flora
of Costa Rica
by www.photo.net
Costa Rica has an extraordinary abundance
of flora, including some 9,000-plus species
of "higher plants." There are
many more species of ferns in Costa Rica--about
800--than in the whole of North America,
including Mexico. Of heliconias, members
of the banana family more familiarly known
as "birds of paradise," there
are some 30 species. It is a nation of green
upon green upon green.
The forests and grasslands flare with color,
some flamboyantly so, for plants like to
advertise the delights and rewards they
have to offer, including the ultimate bribe--nectar.
Begonias, anthuriums, and blood of Christ,
named for the red splotches on the underside
of its leaves, are common. My favorite plant
is the "hot lips" (labios ardientes),
sometimes called "hooker's lips"
(labios de puta), whose bright red bracts
remind me of Mick Jagger's famous pout or--more
appropriately--Madonna's smile. The vermilion
poró tree (the bright flame-of-the-forest),
pink-and-white meadow oak, purple jacaranda,
and the almost fluorescent yellow corteza
amarilla are trees that all add their seasonal
bouquets to the landscape. And morning glory
spread their thick lavender carpets across
lowland pastures, joined by carnal red passion
flowers, unromantically foul-smelling--a
crafty device to enlist the help of flies
in pollination.
Many plants play out the
game of love and reproduction in the heat
of the tropical night, when they emit their
irresistible fragrances designed to attract
specific insect species. Other flowering
species employ markings on their petals
to indicate the exact placing of the rewards
insects seek. Many orchid species, for example,
are marked with lines and spots like an
airfield, to show the insect where to land
and in which direction to taxi (see "Orchids,"
below). Others display colors invisible
to the human eye, yet clearly perceptible
by insects whose eyesight spans the ultraviolet
spectrum.
The most abundant flora
in rainforest environments are ferns, light-gap
pioneers found from sea level to the highest
elevations. The ancient terrestrial ferns
once served as food for many a prehistoric
beast. The big tree ferns--sometimes called
rabo de mico ("monkey-tail") ferns,
an allusion to the uncurling young fronds--are
relics from the age of the dinosaurs, sometimes
a dozen feet tall, with fiddleheads large
enough to grace a cello. Others are epiphytic,
arboreal "nesters," or climbers
whose long leaves can grapple upward for
60 feet or more.
The epiphytic environment
(epiphyte comes from the Greek, "upon
plants") is extremely poor in mineral
nutrients, a kind of nutrient desert. The
bromeliads, brilliantly flowering, spiky-leafed
"air" plants up to four feet across,
have developed tanks or cisterns which hold
great quantities of rainwater and decaying
detritus in the whorled bases of their tightly
overlapping stiff leaves. The plants gain
nourishment from dissolved nutrients in
the cisterns. Known as "tank epiphytes,"
they provide trysting places and homes for
tiny aquatic animals high above the ground.
Costa Rica has over 2,000 species of bromeliads
(including the pineapple), the richest deposit
of such flora on the isthmus.
All plants depend on light
to power the chemical process by which they
synthesize their body substances from simple
elements. Height is therefore of the utmost
importance. When an old tree falls, the
strong, unaccustomed light triggers seeds
that have lain dormant, and banana palms
and ginger plants, heliconias and cecropias--all
plants that live in the sunshine on riverbanks
or in forest clearings--burst into life
and put out big broad leaves to soak up
the sun, to flower and to fruit. Another
prominent plant is the poor man's umbrella
(sombrilla de pobre), whose name you'll
remember if you get caught in a downpour
while in the rainforest; its giant leaves
make excellent impromptu umbrellas
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Hotels in Costa Rica
