Iconic Animals in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is the one place on earth you will want to visit if you wish to view the world’s eco-diversity. It has long been known as one of the world’s most eco-diverse countries and is the jewel in Latin America’s vast panorama of jungles, vibrant and teeming oceans, and the garden of nature itself.

Whether you’re out to spot a humpback whale, a macaw, some sea turtles, a coatimundi (a racoon-like animal) referred to as a pizote , a margay or a puma, Costa Rica is the place that offers you the opportunity to view them all – perhaps in one day!

It would be impossible for me to cover in an article every animal, insect, and fish in Costa Rica. It would take a book, or a series of books, to cover all that. In fact, you could write a chunky book on the monkeys of Costa Rica alone.  However, here are a few examples of the country’s iconic and rich diversity of animal life and where you can find it. Remember, bring a camera. You will not see nature like this anywhere else!

Crocodiles

There are two kinds of crocodiles in Costa Rica which can be found throughout the lowland regions of Costa Rica.  They are the American crocodile and the spectacled caiman.

The American crocodile is a formidable beast, capable of growing up to six meters, or twenty feet in length. To give you a sense of the scale of these creatures, it is longer than the length of a modern Cadillac. They can weigh as much as 2000 pounds, the same weight as a black rhinoceros. They are adaptable in terms of their environment and can be found in the rivers, swamps, small islands ,and lagoons of Costa Rica, and are known to occasionally be spotted on the beaches.

The spectacled caiman is a smaller creature, but no less impressive. Closer in relation to the alligator than the crocodile family, they can mainly be found in canals, rivers and mangroves.

Crocodiles had been seen in Tortuguero, the Sierpe Wetlands, and Palo Verde National Park and in many of the canals of Costa Rica. The best (and safest) place to visit them is the Tarcoles River Bridge south of Puntarenas. Park up near the bridge, not on it as you’ll block the traffic as some do and peering over the side of the bridge, you’ll see dozens of these magnificent reptiles that have changed little in their 145 million years on the planet. There are tour guides who will offer to take you down by the bank of the river to watch them feeding the crocodiles. Please do not do this unless you want what is left of you to return home in a shopping bag! It is illegal to feed wildlife or even take selfie photos with them, or anything that disturbs them.

Humpback Whales

Costa Rica is known as one of the best places to view these beautiful and awesome creatures, with the whales spending more months in residence than anywhere else in the world. The best time to see them is in January, February, July, August and September when the humpback whale comes to breed and raise its young in the Costa Rican area of the Pacific coast. Uvita, a small town on the south Pacific coast, your best option to spot whales especially during the high season in September. For more of whale-watching, please see my separate article on the subject.

Monkeys

Costa Rica is a great place for monkeys! Home to four species, the howler monkey, the white-faced capuchin monkey, the spider monkey, and the squirrel monkey, you can view these fascinating creatures in the national parks of Costa Rica throughout the country. Different species of monkeys can be found in various regions of the country. For example, the squirrel monkey can be found in the Central Pacific Costa Rica and lives in both Manuel Antonio and Corcovado National Parks. To see all of them in one area, you would need to visit the Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica’s largest national park, on the Osa Peninsula, where all four species can be found. Incidentally, National Geographic called the Osa National Park the “most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity,” so our four monkeys are not the only creatures in residence.

Birds

If, like me, you have a passion for ornithology, Costa Rica can not be bettered. With around 903 different species of birds, including 52 species of hummingbird, 51 species of tanagers, 5 species of jays, 19 species of bitterns, egrets and herons, 16 species of owls, 4 species of vultures, 10 species of trogons and 17 species of parrots, including the scarlet macaw, the largest parrot in the world, Costa Rica is truly the bird-watcher’s paradise.

It is commonly assumed that the macaw is Costa Rica’s national bird, but for the trivia-enthusiasts amongst you, this actually is the clay-colored thrush whose distinctive song has alerted farmers to the oncoming rains for centuries. And we’ve barely touched the surface of the range of birdlife in the country, with their incredible array of colors and melodies. To get a glimpse of this amazing array, hire an experienced tour guide. They are able to identify the various species on a tour through the forests by the bird’s call. A long-lens camera or a telescope is recommended as many of these birds sit up on the canopy and your phone camera probably won’t be able to zoom in on them. That being said guides will have a telescope and you can take photos through that telescope with your phone. Basically, wherever you find trees in Costa Rica, you will find incredibly beautiful birds. And sometimes even where there aren’t any trees. It’s common to see parrots lined up on a telephone wire on a busy urban street!

Wild cats

Costa Rica is home to six different types of wild cats, pumas, ocelots, margay, jaguars, jaguarundi, and oncillas.

Pumas are almost as large as jaguars and one of the two species of cats that don’t have spotted coats. The puma is astonishingly fast, perhaps why it has a famous pair of sneakers named after it. It can be found in Corcovado National Park, Santa Rosa Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and in Cerro de la Muerte.

Ocelots are common throughout the forests of Costa Rica. It has been given the Spanish name manigordo, which means ‘fat hands’, because of large, wide paws which allow it to climb trees and wade across streams with great speed. Ocelots are nocturnal, so if you are on a day hike, keep your eyes on the tree branches and you might see one getting some sleep.

Margays are small, not much bigger than a house cat and look similar to ocelots. Their natural habitat is in thick forests up to 3000 meters in elevation. However, due to deforestation, the margay is an endangered species. If you are determined to see these beautiful felines, they can be found in residence around the Arenal Observatory Lodge in La Fortuna. A friend who was staying at the lodge told me that she got a lot of great night-time shots of them from her hotel balcony.

Jaguars are Costa Rica’s only so-called “big cat.” The name “jaguar” comes from an indigenous word and means “pouncing killer.” The jaguar can grow to over two meters in length and weigh up to 250 pounds. Unfortunately, due to hunting, jaguars are an extremely endangered species, and although they can still be occasionally spotted in the wild, they are more commonly found in the reserves and national parks. The chances of seeing a jaguar are small. However, as its name ‘pouncing killer’ implies, you are unlikely to know if one was close!

Frogs, lizards and reptiles

Biologists come from all over the world to study the reptiles and amphibians of Costa Rica.

Frogs and toads

There are numerous species of frogs and toads alone, from huge toads to be found sitting on the roads of Guanacaste to tiny rain frogs and tree frogs, found mainly in all of the forests of Costa Rica. The red-eyed tree frog is Costa Rica’s most famous frog and can be seen on postcards and tourist photographs. However, other common frogs are the lemur leaf frog, the hourglass tree frog, a handful of poison dart frogs, and glass frogs. Frogs and toads also have a habit of popping up in urban gardens and ponds, so you don’t have to travel too far to observe them. Just don’t pick them up until you’ve identified which species of frog or toad you’re looking at as Costa Rica has nine poisonous varieties.

Snakes

One of the main worries I hear from visitors to Costa Rica is about snakes. Are they deadly and where are they? The country has 139 species of snake. However, only 22 of those species are poisonous. That does not stop even the Ticos, who seem to have a great fear of snakes, from killing them indiscriminately. It must be noted that even the poisonous snakes only attack humans if they are threatened.

The boa constrictor is one of the most common snakes in Costa Rica. Growing to up to four and a half meters, the boa constructor is a nocturnal hunter which lives on birds and small mammals. A capable swimmer, it can be found all over the country. Smaller species of boa, such as the rainbow boa, the wonderfully named Caribbean annulated tree boa and the garden tree Boa, can be found in the Southern Pacific area. In my most recent trip to Manuel Antonio, the gardener said that recently he saw a boa catch and eat a monkey and then climb over the property’s concrete fence. Quite a vivid picture!

The fer-de-lance (terciopelo)reaches a length of up to two meters and is one of the most common snakes in Costa Rica and one of the most dangerous.  It accounts for the most snake-related deaths in Costa Rica and is found in the low and wetland areas. However, as the fer-de-lance has a fondness for rats, it can occasionally be found on the outskirts of human dwellings and in banana plantations. Its venom contains an anticoagulant which causes haemorrhaging. When it is agitated or threatened, the fer-de-lance gives off a low buzz from its tail.  It should not be approached under any circumstances.

Ok, so I don’t want the fer-de-lance to be the last thing you read about and perhaps deterring you from a visit to this amazing country with its incredible range of animal-life. So here is one of the favourites of visitors.

Sloths

A national mascot of Costa Rica (you can find them on banknotes, no less), there are two types of sloths in the country, and they can be found throughout the country. As they tend to sleep a lot, they have made it their business to be difficult to spot by their predators and usually can be found (usually by the trained eye) in the canopies of the trees. They rarely come down to the forest floor as this is where they are in most danger. To see a sloth, its recommended to take one of the guided night hikes. You can catch them during the day, also, but it’s also recommended that you find a guide as the sloth, cute as he is, is very shy.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it would be impossible to cover all the creatures in this paradise in one article. In fact, I feel I’ve hardly touched the surface. I will leave the last word on this to a friend of mine who is an anthropologist from Arizona.

“I’ve been back to Costa Rica over a dozen times over the last thirty years,” she said. “The diversity of animal life here is so rich, it’s impossible to see this kind of wildlife in one place anywhere else and I know I’ve yet to see everything. Only in Costa Rica can you get so see them all in their natural habitat. It’s much more fascinating. And there is a real sense of being in their world, not you in theirs, and that means treating their world with respect.”