Manuel Antonio National Park & Curu Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica
Though it is by far the smallest national park in Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio National Park, fights it out with the Poas Volcano National Park in the Central Valley, for the title of the most popular park in the country. It’s hard not to appreciate the foresight that went into its creation in 1972; otherwise, it may have overtaken the fate of some of the land surrounding it with a large number of hotels, restaurants and pastureland. Manuel Antonio protects a piece of transitional forest; that is, in this case, a forest delimitating the change or transition, between tropical dry forest and tropical lowland wet forest. Some of the plants that are within this forest find their Northern most or Southern most limits in this park. We saw a great example in the Rain tree, in the legume family, which gets its name from the thin, drizzle that one, feels while standing under it, which is nothing else than aphid pee. When the aphids, sapsuckers, take in the nitrogen-rich nutrients from the sap, they secrete the excess of water on our heads. But what am I doing talking about a tree? When I could be mentioning the magnificent mammal morning we had! White-throated capuchin monkeys, agoutis, howler monkeys, white-nosed coatis, squirrel monkeys, white-lined sac-winged bats, two-toed and three-toed sloths, long-nosed bats, variegated squirrels, humpback whales, and a tamandua anteater! Twelve mammals in one day!
During the afternoon, we visited Curu Wildlife Refuge, embedded inside the little remaining seasonally dry forest that still covers parts of the Pacific coast of Central America. Only around 8% of the original half a million hectares of dry forest still exist. Walking through this forest, we could appreciate how different it is from anything we have seen so far and anything we will see: few leaves on the trees, shorter trees with greenish barks, and very interesting symbiotic relationships between plants and insects. Again the afternoon presented us with a good number of mammals and birds.
What a perfect day to have as the first one of our trip!
Though it is by far the smallest national park in Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio National Park, fights it out with the Poas Volcano National Park in the Central Valley, for the title of the most popular park in the country. It’s hard not to appreciate the foresight that went into its creation in 1972; otherwise, it may have overtaken the fate of some of the land surrounding it with a large number of hotels, restaurants and pastureland. Manuel Antonio protects a piece of transitional forest; that is, in this case, a forest delimitating the change or transition, between tropical dry forest and tropical lowland wet forest. Some of the plants that are within this forest find their Northern most or Southern most limits in this park. We saw a great example in the Rain tree, in the legume family, which gets its name from the thin, drizzle that one, feels while standing under it, which is nothing else than aphid pee. When the aphids, sapsuckers, take in the nitrogen-rich nutrients from the sap, they secrete the excess of water on our heads. But what am I doing talking about a tree? When I could be mentioning the magnificent mammal morning we had! White-throated capuchin monkeys, agoutis, howler monkeys, white-nosed coatis, squirrel monkeys, white-lined sac-winged bats, two-toed and three-toed sloths, long-nosed bats, variegated squirrels, humpback whales, and a tamandua anteater! Twelve mammals in one day!
During the afternoon, we visited Curu Wildlife Refuge, embedded inside the little remaining seasonally dry forest that still covers parts of the Pacific coast of Central America. Only around 8% of the original half a million hectares of dry forest still exist. Walking through this forest, we could appreciate how different it is from anything we have seen so far and anything we will see: few leaves on the trees, shorter trees with greenish barks, and very interesting symbiotic relationships between plants and insects. Again the afternoon presented us with a good number of mammals and birds.
What a perfect day to have as the first one of our trip!
