Costa Rica is home to a rich variety of plants and animals.
While the country has only about 0.1% of the world's landmass, it contains 5% of the world's biodiversity. Around 25% of the country's land area is in protected national parks and protected areas, the largest percentual of protected areas in the world.
One national park that is internationally-renowned among ecologists for its biodiversity (including big cats and tapirs) and where visitors can expect tosee an abundance of wildlife is the Corcovado National Park.
The jaguar is a New World mammal of the Felidae family and one of four " big cats " in the Panthera genus , along with the tiger , lion , and leopard of the Old World . The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and on average the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere . The jaguar's present range extends from Mexico (with occasional sightings in the southwestern United States ) across much of Central America and south to Paraguay and northern Argentina .
This spotted cat most closely resembles the leopard physically, although it is usually larger and of sturdier build and its behavioural and habitat characteristics are closer to those of the tiger. While dense rainforest is its preferred habitat, the jaguar will range across a variety of forested and open terrain. It is strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming. The jaguar is a largely solitary , stalk-and-ambush predator , and is opportunistic in prey selection. It is also an apex and keystone predator , playing an important role in stabilizing ecosystems and regulating the populations of prey species. The jaguar has developed an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armoured reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain .
The jaguar is a near threatened species and its numbers are declining. Threats include habitat loss and fragmentation. While international trade in jaguars or their parts is prohibited, the cat is still regularly killed by humans, particularly in conflicts with ranchers and farmers in South America. Although reduced, its range remains large; given its historical distribution, the jaguar has featured prominently in the mythology of numerous indigenous American cultures , including that of the Maya and Aztec .
● Mammals of Costa Rica .
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Costa Rica is home to nearly 250 species of mammal. Medium-sized forest-dwelling mammals are often the most appreciated mammalian fauna of country. These include monkeys such as the frantic
White-headed Capuchin and noisy Mantled Howlers ; two species of aptly named sloths ; the opportunistic White-nosed Coati ; and the fierce predator, the Tayra .
Bats comprise more than half of the mammal species in the country, unusually outnumbering rodents twice over. Their bats are adapted to various foraging methods and foods; including nectar , fish , insects and parasitized blood ,
as the case with the infamous vampire bats . Prominent bats include the tiny, communal-roosting Honduran white bat and the huge, predatory Spectral Bat , the largest new world bat. Large fauna, such as tapir , jaguar and deer are rarely encountered, being both elusive and tied to now-fragmented undisturbed habitats.
Costa Rican mammals range in size from the 3-gram Thumbless Bat of the Furipteridae family to the 250 kg (550 lb) Baird's Tapir .
● Toucans are a family, Ramphastidae in Cetral America .
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
● Ramphastidae
Toucans are a family, Ramphastidae, of near-passerine birds from the neotropics (i.e. Southern Mexico, Centra America, South American, and Caribbean region). The family is most closely related to the American barbets.
● In Aztec Mythology.
The ancient Aztecs believed that the toucan's beak was created from rainbows .
It was said to be the toucans' reward for being messengers of the gods. The Aztecs would perform ancient rituals worshiping the toucans, believing that because their beak was created from rainbows, that the gods would grant them rain. The ritual involved a member of the chosen family to wear a headress of toucan feathers, and plead the toucan for rain.
● Wildlife of Costa Rica and List of birds of Costa Rica .
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Female Anhinga drying its feathers, Costa Rica
Costa Rica is home to a rich variety of plants and animals . While the country has only about 0.1% of the world's landmass, it contains 5% of the world's biodiversity . Around 25% of the country's land area is in protected national parks and protected areas the largest percentual of protected areas in the world.
One national park that is internationally-renowned among ecologists for its biodiversity (including big cats and tapirs ) and where visitors can expect to see an abundance of wildlife is the Corcovado National Park .
The Clay-colored Robin is Costa Rica's national bird. Tortuguero National Park – the name Tortuguero can be translated as "Full of Turtles" – is home to spider , howler and white-throated Capuchin monkeys, the three-toed sloth , 320 species of birds (including eight species of parrots ), a variety of reptiles , but is mostly recognized for the annual nesting of the endangered green turtle and is considered the most important nesting site for this species. Giant leatherback , hawksbill , and loggerhead turtles also nest here.
The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is home to about 2,000 plant species , including numerous orchids . Over four hundred types of birds can be found here, and over one hundred species of mammals . As a whole, around eight hundred species of birds have been identified in Costa Rica.
● Insects of Costa Rica .
Butterflies and moths From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are about 1,250 species of butterflies and at least 8,000 species of moths . Butterflies and moths are common year round but are more present during the rainy season.
Costa Rican butterflies and moths have made amazing adaptations to the environment. Some examples of these are the following:
Swallowtail caterpillars imitate bird droppings and many others have bright colours to warn predators
of bodily toxins.
What someone could easily mistake for a butterfly or a wasp in Costa Rica might be a moth
engaging in Müllerian or Batesian mimicry .
Ecotourism is one of Costa Rica's primary economic resources, and the country's butterflies add a lot to that. They bring life to rainforests , not only with the diversity in colour, but with the magnificence of the flowers that they help pollinate.
Some common butterflies and moths in Costa Rica include:
* Thoas Swallowtail
* Marpesia berania
* Doxocopa laure
* Banded Peacock
* Zebra longwing
* Morpho butterfly
* Green Page Moth
Other invertebrates Invertebrate species make up most of Costa Rica's wildlife. Of the estimated 505,000 species, about 493,000 are invertebrates (including spiders and crabs . It is known that there are tens of thousands of insects and microscopic invertebrates in every land type and elevation level. However, they are largely unnoticed or unidentified. Some notable insects in Costa Rica are stingless bees , ants such as leaf-cutter ants and army ants , Hercules beetle , and many katydids
● Amphibians of Costa Rica .
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Costa Rica is home to around 175 amphibians , 85% of which are frogs . Frogs in Costa Rica have interesting ways of finding fishless water to raise their young in. Fish, of course, will eat tadpoles and eggs. Poison Dart Frogs put their eggs in water pools in bromeliads . Other methods include searching ponds before laying eggs, and laying eggs in wet soil. There are 35 species of Elutherodoctylus frogs, 26 species of Hyla frogs and 13 species of glassfrogs .
Notable frog species in Costa Rica include Red-eyed Tree Frog , a few species of Poison Dart Frogs , the semitransparent glassfrogs , and the large Smoky Jungle Frog . Some other notable toad species in Costa Rica include the ten species of Bufo toads, and the Giant toad a huge toad known for its wide appetite. It has been documented eating almost anything,
including vegetables, ants, spiders, any toad smaller than itself, mice, and other small mammals.
Besides the frog species, approximately 40 species of lungless salmander and two species of caecilian are found in the country, both rarely-seen and little known. Costa Rican amphibians range in size from the Rainforest Rocket Frog , at 1.5 cm (0.5 in), to Giant toad, at up to 15 cm (6 in) and 2 kg.
● Biodiversity in Costa Rica .
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Biodiversity is a resource with enormous potential, both for intellectual and economic purposes and as an instrument for a country's development.
The tropical zones of the American continent (Neotropics), where Costa Rica is located, contain a greater diversity of species and ecosystems, as well as a broader range of interactions, compared with other tropical regions of the world. Obviously, this diversity is also much greater than that of temperate and cold regions.
With a land area of only 51.100 km2 (0.03% of the planet's surface) and 589.000 km2 of territorial waters, Costa Rica is considered to be one of the 20 countries with greatest biodiversity in the world . Its geographic position, its two coasts and its mountainous system, which provides numerous and varied microclimates, are some of the reasons that explain this natural wealth, both in terms of species and ecosystems. The more than 500,000 species that are found in this small country represent nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide. Of these 500,000 species, just over 300,000 are insects .
The institution charged with the task of administering Costa Rica's biodiversity is the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE), and more specifically to the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), which is responsible for the conservation and sustainable use of the country's biodiversity. SINAC has 11 Conservation Areas distributed throughout the country and is headed by a Directorate that provides technical support .
The 11 Conservation Areas are the different regions established by MINAE to undertake a decentralized management of biodiversity, with the active participation of the communities surrounding the protected wildland areas. This participation is of vital importance for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at the local, national and global level. INBio has worked very closely with SINAC since its foundation, and especially from 1998 onwards, through the INBio-SINAC Joint Program.
Bats comprise more than half of the mammal species in the country, unusually outnumbering rodents twice over. Their bats are adapted to various foraging methods and foods; including nectar , fish , insects and parasitized blood ,
