Costa Rica; where the Americas meet #3. Animals, the tinies and the hairies.

This is the third of a four-part series on Costa Rica. As I explained last time, the planned post to incorporate all the animals except birds got too long, so here is the rest of that one, with the perhaps unlikely pairing of invertebrates (mostly insects) and mammals. If you missed the first post in the series, you may find it helpful with regard to the places mentioned in this post.

Invertebrates often miss out entirely and, while I won't be guilty of that, there's going to be less information here than for the other animal groups, simply because I don't have it, or because it doesn't even seem to exist anywhere accessible. Many I don't even have a name for but hopefully we can enjoy them without that. Here's a small sample of the many 'little animals' that we saw. 

An orbweb spider Argiope submaronica, at Tapirus Lodge. Although it's not very large, one
has been recorded at La Selva Research Station as capturing, wrapping and feeding on,
a Proboscis Bat (see below for some live and healthy ones).

Grasshoppers and katydids are everywhere; here are a couple of unidentified ones we admired. 

In the rain at Tapirus Lodge.

A large striking species that we saw on both visits, this one was in a large group
close to the sea at Tortuguera.

Beetles are a major part of any ecosystem, and here are three ranging from quite small to extremely large!

A beautifully iridescent little chrysomelid (or leaf beetle) on a telescope at the Bougainvillea Hotel.
Perhaps it was trying to look bigger...

Elephant Beetle Megasoma elephas, some 10cm long. Only the males have the extraordinary
'tusk', used for duelling with other males. This beauty and the next had been temporarily relocated
to the garden of the wildlife artist 'Cope' (see the previous post).

Hercules Beetle Dynastes hercules, an equally striking animal, one of the
rhinoceros beetles. A male can be up to 17cm long, though this one was a little less dramatic.
Another remarkable aspect of this beetle is that it can actually fly, one of the largest insects
to do so. Again only the males have the horn. The huge larvae play an important role
in breaking down fallen logs in the forest.

Leafcutter ants are ubiquitous and fascinating (and hard to meaningfully photograph I've found).
This is part of a column, carrying leaves they've cut to the nest where they are used to
cultivate a fungus that the ants eat. Sometimes you can see ants hitching a ride on
the leaves - these are said to be guarding against parasitic wasps.

Part of the above-ground part of a leafcutter ant colony which may cover tens of square
metres which the ants keep clear of vegetation.

Tapirus Lodge maintains a large light trap - a large double-sided screen with lights to attract insects during the night. It's not clear if it's part of a study, or just to showcase the insects, many of which remain on the screen the next day; while there we daily examined this screen carefully, and found some great rewards. This cicada, and a couple of the moths below, are on this background.

We didn't see this lovely cicada anywhere else, but they were probably high above our heads.

A couple of other invertebrates were quite unexpected.

This amazing tailless whip-scorpion (Family Phrynidae) was in someone's room at Tortuguera.
She (the human occupant of the room) was admirably calm about it, and one of our number
was equally admirable in moving it to a tree trunk outside.They are arachnids but not scorpions
(or even true whip scorpions!). They have no sting or venom, but the jaws can puncture skin if
you do something silly (see next photo). They are nocturnal, hiding under bark or living in caves,
found throughout the world's tropics. This one was at least ten centimetres across.
They use the back six legs for walking, and the front two stretch forward as sensory organs.

Closeup of the scary jaws (or pedipalps).

This land crab was encountered while walking on a forest track in the rain at Monteverde,
not what we expected a few hundred metres above sea level and far from the sea.
Unfortunately I can't find out anything about it.

And I know that at least some of you have been waiting somewhat impatiently for the butterflies. Your wait is over. There were of course many, some of them even identifiable, in some cases with some help (thanks Steve!).

Banded Peacock Anartia fatima males duelling - or least the top one was, the bottom one
was just trying to mind his own business. The other was performing aerobatics to
intimidate - while it's not obvious, in the photo he was in the midst of a full reverse
loop in the air! I'm sure there is information on this behaviour available, but
I can't find it. (And it's possible the male was trying to impress a female,
but again I can't find any information to support this.)

 And for the record, here's what the same Banded Peacock looks like from above.

White Peacock Anartia jatrophae in the same garden at Turtle Lodge in Tortuguera
as the Banded Peacocks above.

Isabella's Longwing Eueides isabella, Cerro Lodge near the Pacific central coast.
It is found throughout Central America, tropical South America and the Caribbean.

Crimson-patched Longwing Heliconius erato, Caño Negro, far north.

Owl Butterfly Caligo sp., La Fortuna, one of a genus of large slow butterflies
found throughout the Neotropics. The 'eyes' are supposed to resemble those of owls.

The remaining four, all moths, were resting on or near the Tapirus Lodge light traps; I can only put a name on the first of them.

Orizaba Silkmoth Rothschildia orizaba. This magnificent moth is huge, up to 18cm
across. The four transparent 'window panes' in the wing give rise to its Spanish name, Cuatro Ventanas.

The remaining three must remain anonymous, unless you can help me. They were chosen from many I could have used from the photos I took at the light trap.

Peacock Moth Automeris io, which is found across much of North America.
(Thanks Fanny!)

And, with something of a leap, that brings us to some mammals. Costa Rica has a rich mammal fauna - as with all animal groups there it seems - but of course most are nocturnal and many are hard to find, especially with a group. What follows however is a fairly good array of species, especially for a very small country.

Sloths, along with armadillos and anteaters, are the only surviving old South Americans, whose ancestors long predated the coming of the invaders from the north which now dominate in South America. You can read more on this in the first post in this series, but it means that they get top billing here! Moreover Costa Rica sometimes seems awash with sloths - they are a major tourist attraction and there are some unsavoury stories of tourist facilities moving sloths to their property to attract customers. I have read too that there is said to be a greater biomass of three-toed sloths in Costa Rica than of any other (non-human) mammal. There are two species of sloth in Costa Rica, each belonging to an entirely different family - in fact their last common ancestor (a ground-dwelling animal) lived some 28 million years ago, so they are not closely related, despite looking very similar. Their lifestyle has led to an impressive example of parallel evolution.

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Bradypus variegatus, at Tapirus Lodge. And they do seem
to spend a lot of time scratching! All sloths have three toes on their hind feet, and this family
is named for its front feet (look at its 'hand' on the branch). Famously they come down
to the foot of the tree to defecate about once a week - and I've still not read a
plausible explanation for this. However a recent publication, which is also
unimpressed by all other explanations, suggests it is merely that this is what
their ground-living ancestors did, and there's not been enough selection pressure
(ie from predation during the process) to change the habit.. Hmm.

Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth Choloepus hoffmanni, La Selva Research Station.
They are supposed to be fairly common but this is the only one we saw,
and at night. Not a great photo but I chose it because it shows the
two front claws quite clearly. It also has no tail, while the three-toeds
have a short one.

And in a somewhat bizarre aside, the mighty Zoonomia Project, coordinated by university laboratories around the world, recently compared the complete genomes (an extraordinary concept) of 240 mammal species around the world. One aspect was comparing the number of olfactory receptor genes, a pretty good indicator of the sensitivity of a mammal's ability to smell. Not many people, I suspect, would have bet on Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth to come in third in this 'competition' (behind only the African Elephant and the Nine-banded Armadillo). Another Costa Rican came in fourth - read on!

Tapirs evolved in North America, but became extinct there after spreading to South America and Asia. There are three species in the Americas, but only one in Central America. This is Baird's Tapir Tapirus bairdii, which is found throughout Central America and just enters South America in north-western Colombia. It is the biggest of the American tapirs and is found from mangroves to cloud forests. At Tapirus Lodge - appropriately - a family has become used to visiting the lodge for kitchen scraps, though they are totally wild animals and come and go unpredictably.

Baird's Tapir on a walking track at Tapirus Lodge. The typical tapir proboscis,
a soft, flexible snout for grasping food and smelling the air, shows well here.
This is a big animal, weighing up to 300kg.

Everyone wants to see monkeys in the Neotropics of course and Costa Rica has plenty, though only four species. Three of these are fairly easy to see, but the Red-backed Squirrel Monkey occurs only in two national parks on the Pacific Coast, and unfortunately we didn't see them.

Central American (or Geoffroy's) Spider Monkey Ateles geoffroyi in the lodge garden
at Caño Negro in the far north, though we saw them in several places. Though spindly
with seemingly impossibly long slender limbs and tail, it is regarded as one of the
largest American monkeys, weighing up to 9kg (though this is a young one). Small
groups forage for fruit during the day, and come together for the night roost.

This unusual photo of a mother and baby Mantled Howler Monkey Alouatta palliata was
made possible by the series of suspension bridges above deep rainforest gullies on the
walking tracks at Selvatura Park at Monteverde. This big monkey is found throughout
Central America and down the north-west coast of South America to Ecuador, living
in quite large groups and living primarily on leaves. These are a very low energy
food source, though of course there are plenty of them! To me the rushing roar of
the male howler monkey is one of the sounds of the tropical American forests,
and it can be heard kilometres away.

White-faced Capuchin Cebus capucinus, at Cerro Lodge on the middle Pacific Coast, though
it occurs throughout the country. A fairly small monkey, it travels in groups and eats almost
anything, from fruit and flowers to insects and small lizards. Local guides (especially bird guides)
are likely to describe them as 'bad monkeys' as they actively hunt bird nests, and many breeding
attempts fail due to them.

Microbats (ie the small insect-hunters, not the big fruit bats) are rarely easy to see but two Costa Rican species often roost during the day in conspicuous sites, in groups of one male and a 'harem' of females, and in very distinctive postures. Both are less than 5cm long.

Greater White-lined Bats Saccopteryx bilineata in an alcove behind the fridge in
the open-walled restaurant at Esquinas Lodge in the far south rainforests. Their
'normal' site would be a hollow tree or between tree buttresses. This is their
characteristic pose, upside down with raised head and propped on their forearms.

Proboscis Bats Rhynchonycteris naso along a coastal waterway at Tortuguero on the
Caribbean coast. This 'lined-up' roosting formation is characteristic. Their pointy noses
can also be seen here. They are always near water and usually roost on tree trunks
above it. Below is a (somewhat muddy) close-up of the same species.

Carnivores aren't so easy to photograph in general, but you can get lucky. One usually fairly up-front carnivore is a coati - there are four species in the Neotropics, two of which are widespread and pretty conspicuous. They are in the same family as raccoons and some less familiar carnivores such as kinkajous. The South American Coati Nasua nasua is found throughout much of the continent and when fed can be a pest and a dangerous one; the ones at Iguazu Falls are notorious, though it's obviously not their fault. The White-nosed Coati N. narica takes its place in Central America; while I don't doubt that they could also be a bit of a problem around lodges and tourist attractions, we didn't see any evidence of it so presumably most tourists here are better educated and behaved. Unlike many carnivores they are diurnal, so we are more likely to encounter them.

Baby White-nosed Coati, part of a big group at Tapirus Lodge. These groups comprise
females and youngsters. Though I've referred to them as carnivores and they certainly hunt,
both on the ground and in trees for pretty much anything they can catch, they are
really omnivores, with fruit also being an important part of the diet.
Their erect waving tails often give them away!

Males on the other hand are solitary, except during courtship. This one was
typically on his own in the forest at Volcan Arenal.

The next one on the other hand required a lot more luck. We were returning by boat from Tortuguero (the only way to get there) and on rounding a bend came on this lovely Neotropical River Otter which had just emerged from the water with its catfish lunch. This otter has a huge range, from Mexico to Uruguay, but is threatened throughout that range, though for the most part there is insufficient knowledge about it to be sure just how much trouble it's in. It's certainly rare almost everywhere and we were very fortunate indeed. I've only seen three others, in Peru and Brazil, and they were quite fleeting and distant encounters.

Neotropical River Otter Lontra longicaudis on the Rio Suerte (ie 'Lucky River', and it was for us!)
 A rare and special viewing. They can sometimes be up to 1.5m long and weigh up to 15kg,
though that's unusual; still, it's a big animal.

And finally rodents. The most commonly encountered in Costa Rica are agoutis and squirrels, but somehow I failed to get a decent picture of the big, busy Central American Agouti Dasyprocta punctata. However to give you an idea, I'm going to inflict a decidedly below-par photo of one on you,with apologies. 

Central American Agouti foraging in the early morning at Esquinas Lodge.
They never seem to stand still! And it was this agouti which the Zoonomia project
ranked fourth in keenness of smell of the 240 mammals tested.

Agoutis are old South Americans, though not one of the originals like the sloths. Their ancestors, like the monkeys, arrived by rafting across the Atlantic from Africa. In the case of the rodents this happened some 45 million years ago (the monkeys arrived about 10 million years later).

 

Squirrels, which arrived recently from North America, weren't so difficult to find, to say the least. We saw three species, but one predominated - and if you didn't do your homework you'd be likely to think you were seeing several species! It's called the Variegated Squirrel Sciurus variegatoides for good reason. The next four photos were of this lovely big squirrel, which occurs throughout the country.

At Rincon de la Vieja, in the dry forests of the far north-west.

At Arenal Lodge, in the ranges of the central north-west - it's all-black.

 

Also at Arenal Lodge; oddly I can find no mention of the races interbreeding
but, if they're coexisting as the same species, surely they must be.

At artist Cope's garden in the central mountains.

Finally, probably my mammal highlight of the trip (though the otter was a strong competitor!). In 16 visits to South and Central America, always with skilled naturalist guides, I'd never seen a porcupine. This finally changed, within a few metres of our lunch tables at Turtle Lodge by the Caribbean at Tortuguero. It wan't easy to see to start with, but after that there was no trouble relocating it - it seemingly never moved during the three days we were there, though it must have gone foraging at night. Though their ancestors came from Africa (probably the same ancestor as the agoutis'), it wasn't the same as the African porcupines' ancestor, and they are only distantly related.

A very contented-looking Mexican Porcupine Coendou mexicanus in its favourite
bed in a palm tree. Despite its name it occurs throughout Central America.

So, that's it for a tour of some more of Costa Rica's animals. I enjoyed conducting the tour -both that one and this one - and I only hope you've enjoyed it too, otherwise there wouldn't be much point to it! Thanks for reading this far.

 

Some time I'll conclude this series with a post on the wonderful birds of Costa Rica, but next time I'll be back in Australia to introduce a lovely coastal park in my 'state of origin'. See you there.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER

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