Corcovado National Park, Puntarenas Costa Rica
The day started quite overcast, rainy and cloudy. It was definitely an interesting one for the natural history staff to prove to our guests that even when it is rainy, the Corcovado National Park and its amazing tropical seasonal rain forest are worth getting wet to see.
But I tell you, that morning no one ever predicted the things that were about to happen. This national park stands as the Costa Rican emblem of conservation, is one of the largest parks and because of its isolation and hard access, still much undisturbed. As the guests were returning to the headquarters of the park reports were popping up: the sound of spider monkeys cruising the canopy, a troop of coatis turning the forest floor upside down and inside out, and a white hawk was seen flying through the forest.
All the groups had great sightings and even when we were quite happy with that, Mother Nature wanted to compensate us with the bold 18 inch red, blue and yellow body of several scarlet macaws, what a show and display of color. What a bird! Unfortunately, they are endangered because of their beauty, captured either to have them as pets or for their feathers. They mate for life, meaning that if one gets poached the other one is not going to reproduce more fledglings for the rest of its life. As is this wasn't threat to the species enough, they like to nest inside the trunk of the wild almond trees (Dypterix panamensis) which are a target for loggers because of the beauty of their wood.
At this point in our day we felt very spoiled with all these animal sightings, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. After a delicious lunch and a well deserved nap, some of us decided to look out for some marine wildlife. The expectations were perhaps some dolphins and maybe turtles… but the spout of a whale in the distance made our heartbeats speed up.
As we got closer, a Humpback whale of 50 feet in length started to perform a breathtaking show: first it spy hopped (when they stick out their heads up to their eyes and turn around) a couple of times to make sure we were harmless; then it felt comfortable enough to lift its flukes and flippers out of the water and then propel its 40-odd tons of body mass in the air, falling down slapping its back against the water. It did this not once, not twice but four times in a row. As the literature says, this species is one of the most acrobatic among the big whales and, our sighting backed up those books.
Nature is wise and fair, it compensates the ones that trust its beauty despite of the hardest weather.
The day started quite overcast, rainy and cloudy. It was definitely an interesting one for the natural history staff to prove to our guests that even when it is rainy, the Corcovado National Park and its amazing tropical seasonal rain forest are worth getting wet to see.
But I tell you, that morning no one ever predicted the things that were about to happen. This national park stands as the Costa Rican emblem of conservation, is one of the largest parks and because of its isolation and hard access, still much undisturbed. As the guests were returning to the headquarters of the park reports were popping up: the sound of spider monkeys cruising the canopy, a troop of coatis turning the forest floor upside down and inside out, and a white hawk was seen flying through the forest.
All the groups had great sightings and even when we were quite happy with that, Mother Nature wanted to compensate us with the bold 18 inch red, blue and yellow body of several scarlet macaws, what a show and display of color. What a bird! Unfortunately, they are endangered because of their beauty, captured either to have them as pets or for their feathers. They mate for life, meaning that if one gets poached the other one is not going to reproduce more fledglings for the rest of its life. As is this wasn't threat to the species enough, they like to nest inside the trunk of the wild almond trees (Dypterix panamensis) which are a target for loggers because of the beauty of their wood.
At this point in our day we felt very spoiled with all these animal sightings, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. After a delicious lunch and a well deserved nap, some of us decided to look out for some marine wildlife. The expectations were perhaps some dolphins and maybe turtles… but the spout of a whale in the distance made our heartbeats speed up.
As we got closer, a Humpback whale of 50 feet in length started to perform a breathtaking show: first it spy hopped (when they stick out their heads up to their eyes and turn around) a couple of times to make sure we were harmless; then it felt comfortable enough to lift its flukes and flippers out of the water and then propel its 40-odd tons of body mass in the air, falling down slapping its back against the water. It did this not once, not twice but four times in a row. As the literature says, this species is one of the most acrobatic among the big whales and, our sighting backed up those books.
Nature is wise and fair, it compensates the ones that trust its beauty despite of the hardest weather.
