Wildlife Viewing in Costa Rica

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Costa Rican Wildlife Hotspots

Note: This article was written by Jeff Otico, a Massachusetts native who has lived and worked in Costa Rica for many years. He has been a guide for Costa Rica Connection and Costa Rica Sun Tours since 1989.
 
For many visitors traveling on Costa Rica nature tours, seeing tropical forest wildlife such as monkeys, macaws, nesting sea turtles, leaf cutter ants, toucans, quetzals, gaudy-eyed tree frogs, poison-dart frogs and sloths, is a trip highlight. A well-planned Costa Rica ecotourism trip at the right time of year will reward travelers with sightings of many different species of wildlife.

At the bottom of this article, you will find some tips on preparation and expectations for wildlife viewing, but closer to the top you will see brief descriptions of places to go and what kinds of wildlife you might find there. Use these brief descriptions together with the other information on our website to help decide what kind of experience you want on your Costa Rica trip.

If you still can't decide after reading everything, just give us a call and we'll help! Call tollfree 800-345-7422.

Places to view wildlife

There is plenty of wildlife to see in Costa Rica. Nature tours that last several days and travel through a number of the following national parks and reserves, visitors will usually be rewarded with numerous wildlife sightings. Some wildlife is common and seen frequently-colorful birds are almost everywhere-while other wild creatures rare or elusive. When in the forest, one should walk quietly and listen. There is always the possibility of encountering something unexpected around the next curve in the road or forest trail.

Lowland rainforests in parks or private reserves frequently visited by vacationers are some of the best places to see wildlife. Many birds and animals quickly become accustomed to people in heavily visited parks, and tame enough to approach closely for good views or to take photographs. Tortuguero, Manuel Antonio, Rio Frio (the Cold River that drains out of Caño Negro), La Selva and Tiskita Jungle Lodge are top locations for seeing monkeys, sloths, birds, iguanas, and more. Lowland wildlife is usually least active during the heat of mid-day. Early in the morning, between 5:30 and 7:30 and late in the afternoon from about 3:30 to 5:00 are peak feeding periods for birds and many animals that are active during the day. Avoiding the midday heat is better for you, too!

The private reserve and research facility of La Selva has monkeys, iguanas, agoutis, poison dart frogs, anteaters, sloths and about half the bird species of Costa Rica recorded on the property. A research site for several decades now, the wildlife is accustomed to humans and the mammals walk about the grounds with little fear of people. Costa Rica Connection highly recommends La Selva for Costa Rica nature tours.

About 1500 leatherback sea turtles used to nest at Playa Grande during the nesting season from November to February, but in the last twenty years their numbers have dropped 95% to only about 75 nesting females-and numbers continue to decline. Fortunately green sea turtles numbers have been rising at Tortuguero in the last few decades. From late June to October, some 50,000 nests have been recorded here. To watch this process, you must go on a guided tour and cannot take pictures (flash photography disturbs the nesting turtles).

If you cannot go to the park during the sea turtle nesting, there is still plenty wildlife to see on nature tours at Tortuguero. In addition monkeys, there are iguanas and sloths that reside in the lush tropical vegetation, or you may see spectacled caiman (small alligator relatives), emerald green basilisk lizards, river turtles, and a tremendous variety of both water birds and forest birds that reside here throughout the year. Strawberry red poison dart frogs are common in the forest around Tortuguero Mountain, and around some lodges can be found gaudy-eyed tree frogs which are active at night-particularly rainy nights.

The famously resplendent quetzal is a resident of mountain forests. One can be virtually assured of seeing quetzals in Monteverde from March to May when they are nesting. Their presence is less assured in other months when they move about in search of fruiting wild avocado trees. If the wild avocado trees are fruiting with their grape-sized little avocados, the quetzals will remain in the area and can be observed around the tree when they feed.

If you are planning your Costa Rica vacation around quetzals and other birds of mountain forests, then visit the southern mountains where these birds are found throughout the entire year. In the Cerro de la Muerte Mountains south of San José are the Savegre Mountain Hotel, Trogon Lodge and Finca Eddie Serrano-properties and accommodations that are in outstanding localities for mountain birds. This area is likely the best place anywhere to see the quetzal, and you may find emerald toucanets, acorn woodpeckers, flame-throated warblers, magnificent hummingbirds, long-tailed silky flycatchers, collared trogons, sulfur-winged parakeets, black-thighed grosbeaks, yellow-bellied siskins and spangle-cheeked tanagers, among others. These areas can easily be visited on a day trip from San José, or one can stay here overnight.

Palo Verde in Guanacaste protects dry forest and seasonal marshes and is great for water birds in late December, January and into mid February when the marshes dry up and water birds congregate to feed on the small fish trapped and concentrated in the shrinking pools of water. Here you may see roseate spoonbills, wood storks, snail kites, laughing falcons, American kestrels, orange-fronted parakeets, yellow naped parrots, and spotted-breasted and streaked-backed orioles, and rarely a Jabiru stork. Mammals include white-tailed deer, tayras (related to weasels and otters) mouse opossum (on a night walk), collared peccaries, howling monkeys, white-throated capuchin monkeys, and collared anteaters.

Carara in the central Pacific lowlands is outstanding for birds, as it combines species from both the dry northern and the wetter southern regions. In the Tarcoles River at the northern boundary of the park, you may see between two and three dozen American crocodiles basking along the shore. Scarlet macaws fly in and out of the park and this population is one of the two last large flocks of scarlet macaws left in Costa Rica (the other location is Corcovado National Park). The mouth of the Tarcoles River is sometimes good for a variety of water and shore birds. A number of mammals may be seen here including armadillos, monkeys, sloths, white-tailed deer, agoutis and anteaters.

Manuel Antonio National Park and the forested areas outside the park around the hotels are good for seeing two and three-toed sloths, iguanas and their ctenosaur cousins, white-throated monkeys, squirrel monkeys, colorful scarlet-legged land crabs, hermit crabs, agoutis, sometimes raccoons and their coati cousins, and occasionally armadillos and anteaters. Accustomed to seeing many vacationing beachgoers, the wildlife is fairly tame here. In the dry season from December through April, the always warm tropical ocean water is especially clear and snorkeling is fun.

Tiskita Jungle Lodge has similar wildlife to Manuel Antonio, and more. One can see little (family?) groups of brown tent bats under palm and other large plant leaves, and Tiskita has a resident white ghost bat that has been there for years and can sometimes be seen "hanging out" under the eaves of one of the guest cabins. Along the stream below the waterfall on the hill just above the restaurant are diminutive red and green poison dart frogs. A flock of young scarlet macaws is now flying around the Tiskita property that were raised and released to build up populations of this magnificent bird. Some 270 bird species have been recorded at and around Tiskita. Tiskita is also an important refuge for the rare Central American squirrel monkey. These appealing and active monkeys are abundant at Tiskita. Wildlife watching begins at each guest cabin's doorstep, as fruit trees planted around the secluded cabins attract birds, monkeys, iguanas and many others.

Corcovado National Park is the only large national park that has all four of Costa Rica's monkeys. This big wilderness park is also the only place where one may see white-lipped peccaries and Baird's tapirs in the wild. The park has one of the two last large flocks of scarlet macaws. Finally, this park is the only place where one has a slight chance of actually seeing a jaguar. Several still reside in the park, although these very shy animals generally flee when they sense the approach of people.

Binoculars: The Essential Tool

The single most important tool you need to get the most out of your Costa Rica nature tour is to bring a good pair of binoculars and know how to use them. If you don't already own these, invest in a good pair to make your future nature adventures more rewarding. Your local professional dealer or a good trade magazine or Consumer Reports can help you identify the good ones. Or, check with your local Audubon Society-experienced birders know about good equipment.

If you have new binoculars, practice using them before the trip so you can locate objects in them quickly. This efficiency will often make the difference between enjoying a sighting of a colorful bird for example, or being frustrated at not seeing it clearly before it flew off. If you choose a knowledgeable guide, he or she will probably have a spotting scope, but it can't be set up quickly enough to catch every fleet-footed or flitting creature in the forest. Your binoculars are much faster!

Also, bring your own pair. Most Costa Rica guides have binoculars to share, but sharing them among 3 or 4 people means you'll miss a lot of the action.

Expectations: Does the Wildlife Show Up on Cue?

Most people-even experienced Costa Rica guides-have never seen a Jaguar in the wild. Although photographs of jaguars poised majestically appear in nearly every photo book about the American tropical rainforests, the reality is that these big cats are very rare and extremely wary of humans (those nice daytime photos of Jaguars posing calmly were taken in zoos).

All of this is to say, one must have reasonable expectations about what can be seen on a tour. Although there are many areas where you can regularly see toucans and monkeys, the animals don't stick to a schedule. On the roads between Arenal and Monteverde, for example, you might see sixty howling monkeys among several troops in the trees along the roads on one day, a dozen or so on other trips, and on some days none at all on the same route.

If you get good information from a guide or printed reports, respect the wildlife (be quiet, be patient), and keep your eyes peeled, there's every reason to expect to see beautiful wildlife in Costa Rica. Ecotourism in Costa Rica is growing because of the abundance of life in this little jewel of a country.

Good luck on your travels in Costa Rica. Nature tours here offer a lot of wildlife to see  - just don't forget your binoculars!

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