Costa Rica Critters

Birdwatching was our main focus throughout our trip to Costa Rica, but we also saw many mammals, reptiles, insects, and a few fish. I've already posted pictures of monkeys. Sloths weren't nearly as frequent on this trip as on our trips to Panama and the upper Amazon (we only saw one). I won't bore you with photos of the deer that are pretty common here.

A few of the most unusual critters we saw this trip:

A crocodile on a log, which we saw while taking a river boat tour.

A porcupine hiding in a tree, spotted on a different river boat tour. I think this was an unusual sighting.

A species of crab-eating raccoons live on the beach. They have learned to look
for discards from human picnics, so they showed no fear of us. 

The coati is a member of the raccoon family.
This one was picking up scraps at the side of the road,
also evidently tamed by the presence of many humans.

An emerald basilisk, one of several types of basilisk lizard found in Costa Rica.

A little green snake. Poisonous? Yes.

On this leaf: a tiny poisonous toad. Don't touch!

We constantly noticed the fluttering motion of butterflies, mostly the
famous blue morpho. But I particularly liked this very white one,
about which I know nothing at all. 

A blue morpho just as it emerged from its cocoon.

The jungle is full of big spiders!

Another big spider.

This seemed like a pretty strange caterpiller. 

The forest was full of interesting plants and trees, as well as creatures.
We and our fellow-hikers were intrigued by this cluster of fungus.

All photos copyright © 2019 mae sander for maefood dot blogspot dot com.