Talking about the biodiversity of Costa Rica is simply something that can give us weeks to cover, with more than 505.000 species, 300.000 of them are insects and 490.000 are invertebrates, Costa Rica has the highest density of biodiversity than any other country worldwide, this beautiful country started the phase of formation around 200 million years ago, and it just finished the process 3 million years ago, completing a natural bridge where the fauna from North America and South America joined to never leave these volcanic lands that represents between 4% – 6% of all the species of the earth in just 51.100 km2.
Costa Rica has numbers that put it on the top of countries that makes the hardest efforts to preserve the wild life if we consider that 25% of the lands are protected and most of them are National Parks, efforts that took Costa Rica to become the first country on earth to punish and ban sport hunting over all the territory, tasks that combined, will take to us to become the first to be Neutral carbon country on earth by 2021 and allows us to produce more than 99% of electricity from renewable resources.
Birds: The top Birds of Costa Rica will call your attention at the first moment, some can only be found deep in the forest, with around the 10% of the birds on earth, more than 200 are migrants, does not matter where you are at in the country, you will be overwhelmed about them, and how easy it will be to be seen, the country is totally covered by birds, and you will be totally impressed about them.
Starting from the top, 6 different species of toucan can be seen in Costa Rica, found from the beaches to the highest mountains, the beautiful birds will capture your attention immediately with their colors, more than 50 different species of hummingbirds, 17 species of parakeets and parrots and 7 endemic species, one of them located in Coco´s Island, for those who love bird watching, Costa Rica is undoubtedly one of the best places worldwide to enjoy of this activity.
Mammals: Undoubtedly, the mammals you can find in Costa Rica are amazing and their features cannot be ignored, these lands are home to the biggest mammal in Central America (Central American tapir), and also the biggest felines in America (Jaguar and Puma). With 225 species; 6 of felines, 4 different monkey species, 2 sloths, and 6 endemic species, unfortunately bigger mammals have been hunted for years, to take some of them almost to the extinction, to commercialize their skin and even their meat indiscriminately, due to these facts, the government had to implement heavier penalties against hunters, and these efforts have taken effect with all the species positively, if you are lucky, to see them sometimes is not that hard as many people think.
Amphibians and reptiles: Together are more than 500 species, these groups play a very important function in our country as pest controllers, depending on the point of view they can look beautiful or ugly to some of us. The diversity with these species is not left behind, there are around 145 snakes, 23 of them venomous and the deathliest can kill you in only 1 hour if you don´t receive a treatment, and if you do, you only have 25% of possibilities to survive, these are called “Fer de Lance” (terciopelo) and the Bushmaster (matabuey) or also known as “Ox killer” she can easily kill a bull with a single bite, but don’t worry, in the last 5 years there are less than 6 lost lives reported.
Let´s get a little bit more relax, frogs and toads are not too dangerous, depending of the species of course, as some native groups used their poison to kill their press when they hunted to kill them faster, Costa Rica houses around 175 amphibians, 85% are frogs, having 13 species of glassfrogs. Sadly, some species are in severe danger due to the climate change, its habitat are being unprotected or have been hit by storms and hurricanes, facts that complicate their life in a big way.
Endangered Species: Unfortunately, a big amount of species are currently in danger of extinction, all because of man’s actions and as it’s known, from 1989 the golden frog, an endemic species of Costa Rica were totally extinct due to the climate change. In the list, there are included all the felines that house in Costa Rica, the Harpy eagle is rarely seen in the Southern Pacific coast, which is the biggest eagle in the Western hemisphere, Howler monkey, sea turtles, and frogs have been killed, or were affected due to the deforestation. The government is facing these situations as best as possible, in 2010, Costa Rica was ranked as the 3rd country in the world with the best management in environmental conservation, only behind Norway and Sweden, letting know the world that we care about our wild life. We all have this responsibility, these efforts will allow us to enjoy in the best way Costa Rica, locals and tourist have this tasks together, this for us, for Costa Rica and the world.
