Animals To See In Costa Rica

If you're only used to seeing exotic animals in
zoos, then a vacation in Costa Rica will be a
real treat! Its forests and mountains are
stuffed with hundreds of species of animals and
plants. Get your camera ready, and keep an eye
out for some of the wondrous fauna living in
this gorgeous nation. Here are a few animals to
look for.

You might not want to run into the red-eyed tree
frog without warning! You might get quite a
scare. It's certainly a unique creature; their
bright red eyes bulge from their heads and
search for crickets, flies, and moths to eat.
The juveniles are usually brown in color, but as
they mature they become incredibly vibrant; their
body turns a brilliant green, with yellow and
blue stripes on their sides and orange toes.
While you might think that this amphibian would
stick out like a sore thumb with all that color,
red-eyed tree frogs are actually very well
camouflaged in the rainforest. Unlike most
vibrant frogs, the red-eyed amphibian is not
poisonous.

Costa Rica is a land of volcanoes; they make
fabulous and unique tourist attractions.
Volcanoes provide the environment with a unique
mix of minerals and soils, so the wildlife
around the area is often quite unique. The
volcano hummingbird lives in the mountains of
Costa Rica; it has a lovely purple throat and
green-brown upper body, while it's overall
length is only a few inches. Like other members
of their genus, the volcano hummingbird feeds on
nectar; they like Salvia and Fuchsia plants,
which are normally preferred by insects. If you
get a glimpse of this shy and diminutive bird,
make sure to snap a photo! You'll impress all
the bird-watchers you know back home.

Is it a monkey? Is it a raccoon? if you don't
really know, then it's just possible that you
have seen the bushy-tailed olingo. This mammal
is local to the forests of Central and upper
South America, however, you can be forgiven for
thinking that it has a passing resemblance to
the scavengers that raid your garbage cans; it's
a distant relative. The olingo is an arboreal
animal, spending much of its life in trees.
Totally covered in thick brown fur, it has
shorter forelegs than hind legs and a slender
body. The bushy-tailed olingo's face is short
and round; it has large eyes, small ears, and a
narrow snout. Olingos eat fruit, especially
figs, and will sometimes drink nectar during dry
seasons. The distant relatives the raccoon and
the kinkajou (a tropical native) share similar
habits and diet.

And if you're not squeamish about insects,
you'll simply have to take a picture of a
Hercules beetle. The forbidding rhinoceros
beetle is aptly named and is a native of Central
America: it's believed to be the strongest animal
on the planet, capable of carrying 850 times its
own body weight! The Hercules beetle is also one
of the largest beetles; in rare cases, males have
reached nearly 7 inches in length. Females are
considerably shorter and lack the huge pronged
horns that make these beetles so distinct.
Hercules beetle larvae spend two years growing
up to 4.5 inches long; the adults feed on fruit
found on the ground, once they are old enough to
emerge from the pupae. Watch your step!


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