This was a heartbreaking sight for me to see monkeys, once free in the wild, chained by the neck to a tree outside a business office for tourists. There ought to be laws against this, but there aren’t.  You can buy wild monkeys at roadsides in Nicaragua. The terrified monkeys have been poached from trees [...]

I spent a day kayaking Lake Nicaragua, just like an eco-tourist would think about doing. I thought kayaking the calm glassy lake was a cake walk until we hit turbulence where the river (Rio Islet) began to join the lake. At that confluence I had to paddle up river for 90 minutes. What a grind! [...]

boa-movie.3gp After a boa constrictor was discovered in someone’s cabin at Campanario last week I had the opportunity to videotape it before we released it into the rainforest. I had never held a snake before and was surprised at how velvety soft and muscular the boa felt. And I marveled at her beauty and bright, [...]

 With the rainy season approaching, there is heightened awareness in Osa about the potential threat of dengue fever. Dengue is contracted, like malaria, west nile and yellow fever, through the bite of a mosquito. In Sierpe people have posted signs reminding folks to take care and not to let water accumulate in tires, upturned buckets [...]

Most of us visitors wandering around Costa Rica are taking photographs with small point-and-shoot and cell phone cameras. But at the wildlife refuges and biological reserves you catch sight of the wildlife paparazzi having a field day capturing the antics of animals and birds with their 900 mm Canon and Nikon lenses, titanium tripods, fill [...]

The white-nosed coati is a diurnal (active in daytime) member of the raccoon family. They have a long upturned snout that they use to snuffle around on the forest floor looking for insects, fruit and small animals. It’s easy to spot the coati in places where humans have left morsels of food in their wake. [...]

The olingo is adorable and cuddly-looking, which makes it all too attractive for the despicable exotic pet trade. It’s nocturnal and mainly arboreal, which means it hangs out on limbs, jumping from tree to tree in search of fruit, mostly figs. Since fruit makes up most of the animal’s diet, it’s not surprising that it [...]

Hummingbirds in Monteverde are gorgeous and plentiful. They’re also a little loco, crashing into windows after flying inside of buildings and not seeing the open breezeways, doors and windows from which to escape. Mariju manages an art gallery at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where she sets out numerous feeders for the hummers. Inevitably, after [...]

From what I’ve read, 54% of Costa Rica’s jungles have been deforested for cattle grazing, which, in my mind, makes cattle pastures the number one issue to deal with if native wildlife is to survive. And yet, when I saw a young calf bellowing fearfully while separated from its mother by a barbed wire fence [...]

Tonight while having a delicious dinner at the home of Rachel’s friends in Monteverde, two gray foxes paid a visit to the front yard. First the vixen arrived. 8-year-old Anna Sofia spotted the young fox who clearly had given birth a week or two earlier. She was a nervous mom and darted into and out [...]