Years ago, while doing research on the green iguana and black spiny-tailed iguana, I came across another species of iguana that calls Costa Rica home, the helmeted iguana. The information I found said that they were difficult to spot in the wild, and their range didn’t include Guanacaste (where I […]
Vincent Losasso
87 posts
Costa Rica offers the entire spectrum of wild creatures. Some animals are particularly beautiful. Others are adorable. Today’s feature creature, the tarantula hawk, can most appropriately be described as terrifying. It’s too big, it can cause you intense pain, and its method for rearing young is the stuff of nightmares. […]
I’ve had a lifelong interest in wildlife. If asked, my mother would happily show you home videos of me in a onesie sitting in wonky positions on the sofa happily watching shows introducing me to the strange and wonderful creatures of the world. The forests that many of these creatures […]
Elegant is an adjective that means pleasingly graceful and attractive in appearance and manner. This is the perfect description for the focus of today’s article, the great egret. The great egret (Ardea alba) is known as the garceta grande or garza real in Spanish. Both names jive with the appearance […]
There aren’t many things that I truly hate. I hate maraschino cherries. When I was in second grade sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table with an open jar of syrupy red cherries sitting in front of me, I asked “Hey Grandma, can I eat the whole jar?” She said something […]
The fauna of Costa Rica is one of the main reasons folks from all over the world come to visit or put down roots in this tiny paradise. They imagine toucans, sloths, and monkeys flying, snoozing, and swinging outside of their windows. As much as they quest for interactions with […]
It silently snatches its prey in the night. It’s one of the most widely distributed birds in the world. It’s the barn owl! The barn owl (Tyto alba) is also known as the common barn owl in English (we’ll get into how common it is in a bit). There are […]
The cracidae (sounds like cra-si-die) family consists of large turkey-like neotropical birds like curassows, chachalacas, and guans. Costa Rica is home to five members of this family, and today the spotlight shines on the most mysterious of these birds, the black guan. The black guan (Chamaepetes unicolor) is known as […]
Some of Costa Rica’s species are more easily identified by sound than by sight. Mantled howler monkeys’ guttural roars are an easy example. The soulful whistle of the thicket tinamou in the evening is one of my favorite songs from nature. Two hollow drumbeats echoing across the forest signals the […]
Just about everything is different between Guanacaste and Pennsylvania. The language is different. The food is different. Heck, the cows are even different. Many of us these cultural differences are one of the main reasons we have decided to call this little country home for the past 12 years. As […]