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Species
of animals seen today
39
Miles
canoed
4
Number
of endangered green macaws spotted today
At least 30!
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Lesson
Plans
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Daily
Dilemma
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Costa
Rica is the most biodiverse country on Earth.
It covers only about 0.003% of the Earth's
surface, but contains over 6% of the number
of plants and animals of the world. List three
of the natural factors that you think make
Costa Rica so biodiverse.
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Amazing Animal Encounters!
Novemeber
4th
7:00 PM Tortuguero, Costa Rica
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The last
few days have simply been unbelievable. We arrived in
Tortuguero yesterday, which is a small town located
right on the edge of El
Parque Nacional Tortuguero. The park was formed
in 1972, and consists of old-growth tropical rainforest.
It is a safe haven for tons and tons of animals. It
is everything I imagined the rainforest would be.
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Click To Enlarge
We discovered 11 long-nosed
bats hanging out on this tree. They are not like
most other bats, because they don't mind the sunlight,
and hang by all four legs.
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Click To Enlarge
Kancho, our fearless leader, hams it up with your
learning adventure guides.
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Tortuguero
is primarily known for the huge number of green
sea turtles that come ashore each year to lay their
eggs. Pika said that on any given night during the turtle
season, Tortuguero's shoreline could have nearly 2,000
nesting sea turtles. More green sea turtles come to
Tortuguero than any other place in the Western Hemisphere.
Tomorrow morning we're going to wake up at 5:00 AM and
comb the beach for hatchlings in one last attempt to
locate some.
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This morning we set out to explore the
rainforest by boat. Later this afternoon we went out
again, this time in canoes. The list of animals we encountered
is lengthy. We saw howler
monkeys, spider
monkeys, white-faced capuchins, kingfishers, anhingas,
egrets, herons, vultures, chestnut
toucans, northern jacanas, purple galenules, caimans,
emerald basilisks, green
iguanas, and the list goes on and on. All of these
animals live in a variety of trees. Almond trees, cecropia,
oil bean trees, provision trees, raffia palms, coconut
trees are just a few of the thousands of trees native
to Costa Rica's rainforest.
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Click To Enlarge
The basilisk lizard has the amazing abilty to walk
on water to escape predators. It doesn't actually
walk on water, but squeezes the fingers on its paws
together to create air bubbles which it can float
on. It can take 50 steps in under one second!
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Click To Enlarge
A 6-foot caiman
came within 2 feet of our boat this morning. It was
one of the most amazing wildlife encounters I've ever
had in my life. |
But, probably the best part of the day came around
4:00 PM this afternoon as we were paddling through the
small canals of the park. Pika told us to stop paddling,
because he heard something off in the distance. It sounded
like a loud, violent squawk. Pika told us to paddle
forward. The squawking got louder and louder. Pika said,
"Keep our eyes peeled for almond trees." Dave
and I still weren't quite sure what sort of animal we
were looking for, but we certainly knew it was a loud
one. And I could tell that Pika was so excited he could
barely keep from jumping for joy.
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| And then we saw one fly over head. It was
a green
macaw, one of the rarest birds in all of Central America.
And it wasn't alone. We estimated that there were at least
30 green macaws in one tree only a few hundred yards away.
The green macaw is considered extinct in Costa Rica due
to the pet trade and habitat loss from deforestation.
Throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America
there are only a maybe a thousand left in the wild. We
had stumbled onto a group of macaws that had probably
traveled from Nicaragua. |
Click To Enlarge
Frosty gazes up into the rainforest and wonders how
anyone could destroy something so amazing. |
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Pika told us that he had never seen so many
green macaws at once in his whole life. We could
tell that he was moved almost to the point of tears.
He said, "I consider myself lucky when I see three
or four a year." We couldn't help but laugh at
our extremely good fortune, and we stayed there admiring
the loud, squawking macaws for nearly an hour.
Seeing these birds made me realize how important every
single organism that makes its home the rainforest is
to the whole planet. I can't imagine how anyone who
enters the rainforest is not completely transformed.
It is an extremely powerful place. I can't wait to explore
more of it!
Happy Trails,
Frosty
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Notes
from the Trail Index
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