Advice on what to aim for in Costa Rica
Hi mammal watchers!
I’ll be traveling to Costa Rica (essentially Playa Grande then Monteverde, so all in Guanacaste) in January with my three kids (age 5 and under) and wife. It’ll be my first time in the Neotropics and I’d love to get a small list of mammals started, as I’ve been more and more interested in mammal watching. I’ve seen trip reports here and am planning to hire guides while there, and also do some by myself. I’ll be prepared over there but will not be able to move much around or do very long days of search for wildlife.
Now, I’ve pulled out a list from iNaturalist of mammals observed in Guanacaste, and am trying to figure out what would be the best middle of the pack species to aim for while asking a guide. I can guess from number of observations that Mantled Howler Monkey, White-nosed Coati, Raccoon (well we definitely have raccoons here anyway) or Variegated Squirrel should be fairly easy to come by and are probably almost guaranteed if you’re thorough even alone. Then I see things like Northern Tigrina, White-lipped Peccary or Dice’s Cottontail that I should not bother looking for. But then, what is the right group (or the right groups) of not-that-easy-but-doable-if-you-ask-the-right-people mammals?
About 200 observations for Guanacaste – Central American Agouti, Nine-banded Armadillo, Souther Opossum
About 100 observations for Guanacaste – Northern Tamandua, Proboscis Bat, Eastern Cottontail
About 50 observations for Guanacaste – Ocelot, Collared Peccary, Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine
About 25 observations for Gunacaste – Striped Hog-nosed Skunk, Tayra, Gray sac-winged Bat
Think that I have never been to the Neotropics. I understand that some of those are probably widespread throughout the continent and that I should probably aim for more localised mammals, but I’m really getting started. Anything I shouldn’t miss while I’m there I’m happy to get advice on as well! Thank you!
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5 Comments
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Vladimir Dinets
I was at Playa Coco and Monteverde a couple weeks ago with wife and kids (3 & 9). Howlers, variegated squirrels etc. are common urban mammals now. iNat records frequencies are extremely biased: note that for Costa Rica there are 140 records for jaguar and just 4 for crab-eating raccoon. If you can get out at night and do some spotlighting, you can see a lot of stuff, even species with zero iNat records are possible 🙂 I don’t have time to write trip reports nowadays, but here’s a little summary: https://wordpress.com/post/dinets.home.blog/79
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Evan
Is there some reason to expect more records of Crab-eating Raccoon in Costa Rica? My understanding is that it’s at the very edge of their range and they may actually be rare there. I’ve also reviewed many iNat records from Central America that were actually Common Raccoon misidentified as Crab-eating. You’re definitely right though that iNat records aren’t great (nor intended) for use determining frequency.
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Ian Thompson
Hi,
I’m not sure what other spots you are planning to visit in Guanacaste, but Santa Rosa National Park can be quite good. I haven’t been there in a decade, but Baird’s Tapir, Nine-banded Armadillo, White-tailed Deer, Tayra, Salvin’s Spiny Pocket Mouse, Central American Agouti, Variegated Squirrel were all findable without a guide at that time. Also excellent for snakes, if that is of interest to you.