Costa Rica: The Ecotraveller's Wildlife Guide

by Les Beletsky

With Costa The Ecotravelers Wildlife Guide , Les Beletsky provides the tourist to Central America with an invaluable handbook to natural history, ecology, and wildlife habitats. The readable, informative text along with photos and drawings will help the ecotourist to identify animals encountered on their visit. Also included are lists of wildlife reserves and other ecologically significant sites with up-to-date conservation techniques in Costa Rica. It is the only book that gives the reader a mix of natural history, ecology, conservation, species identification and site guide all in one volume.

Key Features
* The only guide to Costa Rica to combine general ecological information with basic species identification
* Readable, informative text
* Plates of species with photos of typical habitats and drawings of common plants
* Lists of Reserves and sites to visit
* Up-to-date text on conservation in Costa Rica

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Science

426 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the help of this book and several guides, we identified the following animals that we spotted in Costa Rica on our honeymoon. I only include those we saw outside of captivity. Also, we saw MANY birds, bugs and lizards that I cannot identify. Josh and I made this list as our trip was winding down and we still keep thinking of some that we forgot. I wanted to get it down so I won't forget and so that I could share with my students.

In somewhat alphabetical order:

Agouti
Armadillos
Arrow Shaped Micrathena (MANY!)
Ants, Ants, Ants
American Swallow-Tailed Kites
Ani (kind of crow-like?)
Black River Turtles
Basilisks (Jesus Christ Lizards)
Blue Jeans Poison Dart Frogs
Blue Morpho Butterflies* (and many other butterflies)
Bullet Ants*! (The only animal that I was scared of!)
Black Vultures
Cave Crickets
Chickens
Cattle Egrets
Costa Rican Squirrels
Cattle (Toros!)
Caimans
Crocodile!
Crabs
Crab Spiders
Collared Forest Falcon
Dung Beetle (injured--I put it in a safe spot.)
Dogs
Donkeys
Ducks
Eyelash Vipers
Funnel Spiders
Flying Walking Sticks
Green Sea Turtles
Goats
Green Spiny Lizards
Ground Anoles
Howler Monkeys
Hummingbirds* (SO MANY!)
Hercules Beetle (SO COOL!)
Horses
Iguanas*
Katydids
Kittens
Kingfishers
Ladybugs of all colors and sizes
Leaf Cutter Ants
Long-Lipped Bats
Line Snake Caterpillars
Leaf Litter Geckos
Mosquitos
Northern Raccoons
Northern Jicana
Orange Knee Tarantulas* (GORGEOUS!)
Osprey
Parrot Snakes
Peccary
Ponies
River Otters
Spider Monkeys
Spiders that folded up like walking sticks when at rest
Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs
Scorpion
Two-Toed Sloths* (!)
Three-Toed Sloths* (!)
Turkey Vultures
Toucans*
Vampire Bats
Whitefaced Capuchin Monkeys
Wolf Spiders (I was sort of scared of this one.)
Wild Turkeys
Wood Creepers
Walking Sticks

IT WAS AWESOME!

*Indicates animals that, upon sighting, made me miss my students and feel a little guilty that I was seeing these things and they weren't.


P.S. We went on lots of nature tours with guides, but my favorite was the night walk. Walking through a rainforest at night with all of the chirping and squawking and rustling and the tarantulas is downright surreal.

P.P.S The missing star is for the lack of invertebrates. I know that it would have to have a thousand more pages to include every insect and arachnid and whatnot, but they could have included some of the most common since they were abundant and alien.

P.P.P.S. I didn't see a Quetzal*, which means that I have to go back.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of the ecosystems of Costa Rica and the abundant wildlife there. There are wonderful identifying pictures of birds, reptiles, and mammals. I am taking the book with me to Costa Rica to help me identify animals.

[Miss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent series containing natural history information on all the animals featured and covering a broad variety of fauna types. A good general guide for the mildly curious.