Costa Rica’s flora and fauna
Travellers to the tropics expecting to see an abundance of wildlife oftentimes spend a lot of money but get disappointed. On a Costa Rica vacation, the experiences live up to the promise. From The Costa Rican Condo, you do not have to venture too far to experience the abundance of wildlife and flora and fauna in their natural habitat.
Costa Rica can be compared to a nature’s live theatre, the actors and actresses on full display. Around you, you will find all kinds of creatures and mimicking insects that look like fallen leaves, moths that mimic wasps, the wings of the giant Caligo memnon butterflies looking like wide-eyed owls, and the bark colored machaca or lantern fly which has been partly blamed for the soaring birthrate of Costa Rica. There is a local folklore that says a girl who is stung by a machaca must go to bed with her boyfriend in the same day or risk death.
In Costa Rica, you may also get a glimpse of those animals you are not likely to see in your common trips like the jaguars, the pumas and some ocelots. You may also find glimpses of a group of monkeys, iguanas and quetzals if you are patient and lucky enough. There is also the possibility of encountering three-toed sloth, and if you are lucky they will be scratching their bellies which are their form of aerobic exercise according to one amusing guidebook.
The task of collecting, labelling and identifying the plant and animal species found in Costa Rica was done by a non-profit organization called the National Institute of Biodiversity which was formed in 1989. Before INBIO, this was previously under the supervision of the Costa Rican National Museum but they only identified and discovered around 10% to 20% of the total species of flora and fauna in the country in their existence of more than 100 years.
Identifying plant and animal species is an enormous undertaking because species evolve and there is a chance that each day will bring something new to light. The research and collection tasks has so far unearthed more than 850 bird species making their seasonal home in Costa Rica, 10% of which are also found in the USA and Canada. Grasshoppers catalogued are more than 5,000 species, there are 220 reptiles recorded and 160 amphibians have been known and recorded. This phenomenon of a great quantity of known species has been attributed to the fact that the region has been the bridge for the intermingling of different species of the two large masses of land. This region’s isthmus existence has been said to exist only for the last three million years. The infusion of both plants and animals from the North and South continents resulted in the richness of species which has been found even richer than the biota of either South America or North America while sharing much with both.
It is only fitting that you undertake an excursion to discover the diversity of the flora and fauna from the comforts of Hotel Costa Rica on your Costa Rica vacation. It will not take you too far from the city to discover this richness as Costa Rica is a small country and measures only as small as the state of West Virginia. Costa Rica has many species that still remains to be discovered and you might just find something rare and breathtakingly beautiful in your excursion.
