The Wildlife of Costa Rica: A Field Guide

Zona Tropical Publications

by Fiona A. Reid, Robert Dean, Twan Leenders

This full-color field guide is an indispensable companion to the most popular neotropical ecotourism destination: Costa Rica. Featuring all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods that one is likely to see on a trip to the rainforest (as well as those secretive creatures such as the jaguar that are difficult to glimpse), The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the guide to have when encountering trogons, tapirs, and tarantulas. In addition to providing details for identifying animals along with interesting facts about their natural history, this guide offers tips for seeing them in the wild. Costa Rica, a peaceful nation with many and diverse animal species, is one of the best places in the world for wildlife watching and nature study. It has an excellent system of national parks and reserves, a wide choice of ecolodges, and many professionally trained tourist guides. It is possible to leave the capital city of San José and, just a few hours later, visit a high-elevation cloud forest, dense rainforest, savanna-like plain, or coastal habitat, each with a unique collection of animal species. This new lightweight field guide provides nature enthusiasts visiting Costa Rica with the best introduction to the country's amazing diversity of wildlife. It is the first general field guide to Costa Rica to combine the most sought-after features: •treatment of all major phyla in the country;•coverage of the animals most likely and most desirable to be seen;•more than 600 detailed illustrations integrated with the text (the preferred method of animal identification in the wild);•full species accounts including ID points, range and habitat, size, and behaviors;•a wealth of natural history information, including more than 20 photographic natural history features; and•tips for seeing animals.

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Fiona Reid spent many years capturing small mammals and drawing them from life. She studied biology at Cambridge University in England, and went to graduate school at Stony Brook, Long Island. After illustrating several children’s books and a series of Neotropical mammal books, she decided to embark on writing and illustrating her own book on Central American mammals. She has written and/or illustrated numerous guides, including A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico, The Golden Guide to Bats of the World, Bats of Papua New Guinea, and Mammals of the Neotropics (volumes 1-3).

She is currently a Departmental Associate in Mammalogy at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, Canada. She has also been leading nature tours since 1987, showing ecotourists the mammals and other wildlife of diverse lands from Brazil to Indonesia, and Alaska to Venezuela. She currently lives on the Niagara Escarpment in southern Ontario with her two children and an assortment of pets.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide and very useful. I will have to buy a personal copy.

[Paul Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book to save on weight during the trip, because it seemed overwhelming to bring a mammal book, a bird book, and a herp book. I ended up bringing a bird book anyway so half this volume lost its interest to me. There are very few (25) pages about arthropods, so in retrospect maybe I should have skipped this one and brought the whole library of bats and frogs. If you want just one book, though, this is definitely the one. It's very readable. Hopefully there will be a second edition soon.

[jaiebjarn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was wonderful to carry around on my Costa Rica trip because I could identify everything very easily. 100% recommend.

[Sylvain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought the book while travelling in Costa Rica. While I consulted it during the trip, I read it cover to cover when I returned home to learn more about the fauna endemic to that country. The illustrations and pictures in the book are simply amazing! The descriptions are very informative and interesting to read. The book is not exhaustive and may be of interest to avid birders but it regroups a large enough sample of all of the animals that you are bound to see while in Costa Rica.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit hesitant to pay $30 for a field guide book for a country I may or may not visit again, however this book covers most of the more common species of animals. I was impressed by the accuracy of the sketched illustrations and there were even a few actual photos to help with identification. Written descriptions are accurate and help amateur explorers to quickly identify species. I used this book during my trip. After the trip I used the book to help me identify animal photos I posted to Flickr.