http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bODoCCvaFEg   by: Max and Agustín While walking by the Piro River a few days ago on one of our patrols to ensure the protection of the Osa Wildlife Refuge, Agustín recorded an awe-inspiring video. Agustín told me, “I was walking upstream when I saw a large animal that was moving only a few meters away from me. I silently approached the animal and discovered that it was an otter hunting crabs and shrimp; the agility with which he caught them really impressed me.” The otter (Lontra longicaudis) resides in healthy rivers and streams...

By: Karen Leavelle   Imagine yourself walking through old growth tropical lowland rainforest in the very early morning hours just before the sun begins to rise.  Here you find yourself surrounded by cool morning air, a cacophony of wildlife and the dawn chorus of literally hundreds of birds.  This particular lowland rainforest is one that meets the Rio Esquinas which flows out into the Golfo Dulce and cuts through Piedras Blancas National Park and Lomas de Sierpe.  These two areas are extremely important protected areas that form part of a...

By Hansel Herrera The first rains hit the hills and valleys of the Osa Peninsula. Quickly, the landscape changes from a dry brown to a young green with the scent of flowers and fresh fruit in the air. The giant cenízaro tree (Samanea saman) motionlessly withstands the season change and humbly mixes with the green shoots of the surrounding vegetation. During the dry season, its enormous canopy in the shape of an umbrella gradually releases the moisture carefully trapped during the rainy season. With a top that easily triples its...

by Andrea Johnson Ah, tropical birdwatching. I fancy myself a late-blooming birder: after being dragged along on innumerable chilly warbler walks in the drab woods of northeast Ohio as a child, I ultimately discovered that I had caught my parents’ bug only while on a college fieldtrip to Costa Rica, watching swallow-tailed kites carve air sculptures above a plunging rainforest valley. I’ve subsequently learned to appreciate the subtler pleasures of species that skulk instead of soar, of being able (at least sometimes) to differentiate between a zillion species of...