The Wildlife in Costa Rica

We went to Costa Rica because we had heard from many people that it is a truly wonderful tourist destination where people have the opportunity to enjoy nature from up close. This tiny country has been blessed with immense natural beauty and abundant plant and animal life. In fact, its strategic location between the South and North American land masses is what gives this country its huge amount of natural wealth.  There are plenty of rainforests, mountains, rivers and national parks that are available for anybody who wants to immerse themselves in the Costa Rican wilderness.

Costa Rica has been well endowed with a wide variety of geographical habitats that include beaches, lush cloud forests, lowland rainforests and riverine systems. This has permitted this country to have the kind of biodiversity that other countries do not have. This country has an astounding 850 species of birds alone, including many different species of hummingbirds, flycatchers, toucans and parrots.  You can enjoy them all on a tour or a wilderness trek.  There are plenty of tours you can sign up for when you are there.  From our tourist resort, we signed up for a river cruise where we saw plenty of birds and monkeys and even a nasty alligator.

I learned that Costa Rica also has more than 200 species of mammals. There are at least four types of monkeys in the forests here and three species of anteaters. The forests here are also home to predators such as the jaguar although they are now an endangered species and not easy to encounter in the wild. 
The lush forests of this tiny country would seem dull without the many insect species that live here. The forests are home to so many species of insects that many of them are yet to be discovered. That’s if you like insects, and be forwarned, bring insect repellent with you.  What is really interesting about the forests here is the innumerable butterflies you can see. The blue Morpho butterfly is the most famous one (hardly surprising given its 6 inch wingspan and beautiful color), but there are many more to be seen here.

The government of Costa Rica can take some of the credit for the large amount of wildlife that lives here. It has marked off a considerable portion of the country to be saved for the conservation of nature and this has helped preserve the wildlife wealth of Costa Rica.