Costa Rica February 2012
In 2012 I made two trips to Costa Rica in February and again in May. These trips focused around my involvement in working with American crocodiles at the wonderful Si Como No resort. This amazing resort is right outside Manuel Antonio National Park and has dedicated a large amount of the resorts total property into a preserve with nature trails, as well as "reptile garden" where they have amphibian breeding pools, croc and caiman exhibits, turtle exhibits, and a mariposaria. I helped on their crocodile exhibits, training personnel how to handle and train the crocs, as well as developing a breeding program that culminated in their first successful clutches hatching. Many thanks to Johnny Hernandez. We also travelled around a little bit with visits to Jaco, Tarcoles, Cangreja National Park, and a few places in between. My photos are a bit out of order, so I am sharing them in no particular sequence. I have tried to identify most of the animals but am not an expert of Costa Rica, identifications are welcome.
I'll open out with a nice landscape photo. We stopped for lunch at a nice family's house/diner along a roadside, this was the view off the balcony where we ate.
Jungle vegetation
One of my favorite snakes I have found, the gorgeous Halloween snake, Oxyrhopus petolarius
A view of the top of the head
And one of my favorite snake photos I have taken, a head on view
Red-eyed tree frogs were abundant, Agalychnis callidryas. This one had bumps of white across the back
A pair in amplexus
A collection of eggs laid about a water source
The developing tadpoles
A young amieva
A lizard I was happy to find, Norops biporcatus
Close up of the face
And Anolis capito
A large male Basiliscus basiliscus. Such neat lizards, not only can they walk on water but they look like this? Awesome!
Of course, the ever present but typically elusive blue morpho. I was able to get these at the mariposario, otherwise I wouldn't have had the patience!
A few arboreal salamanders Bolitoglossa specie(s)
A gorgeous eyelash viper that had a neat little pink pattern. Bothriechis schlegelii
Another individual in the same area, more defined pattern
A gorgeous fer-de-lance, Bothrops asper. So much more pretty than the muddy looking variety I am used to seeing in Peru.
Close-up of the face
The view down one of the trails at Cangreja NP
And the park's namesake
Helmeted iguanas, very neat little lizards. Corytophanes cristatus
A large marine toad, Bufo marinus, next to my flash for size reference
A pair in amplexus, love the reflection
Pretty sure this is Bufo haematiticus
Hypsiboas rosembergi were very common and vociferous
Check out those feet!
Some Imantodes, I love this genus. Here is I. inornatus
And I. cenchoa
Ane here is a flood of invert photos, I dont know the identification of most of these, but I know we have a few invert aficionados out there! Another gorgeous butterfly, not sure what species
And a very neat beetle, looked to be a species of long horn
I am fascinated by symbiotic relationships, and the relationship between acacia trees and ants in really neat and interesting...unless you bump into them
Here a young frog met its end with a large spider, hard to even tell what is left
And a very ambitious scorpion
More butterflies and other inverts
A moth
A terrifying way to go...I felt pretty bad for the moth
I couldnt tell if this spider was eating a molt or another spider
A molting cicada emerging from its larval form
A really neat looking caterpillar, definitely says look but dont touch!
A very unusual little insect, no idea what this was
An impressive scorpion, looked to be a Centruroides
A very happy beetle
Web casting spider
Paraque, I think
And a few gorgeous little birds
Toucans were very fun to watch and listen to in the mornings
Some very cute bats I found along a river bank
A hummingbird sitting on its nest
Back to herps, a pretty little gecko, Sphaerodactylus species
Check out those "eyelashes"!
A Coniophanes species
Leptodeira septentrionalis
A brute of a little lizard, Lepidophyma flavimaculatum, I believe
A very exciting snake found by Miguel. Micrurus alleni
The snake took off and swam across a stream with ease
A common but very charismatic snake, Oxybelis aeneus
Stunning lizards, I am fascinated by monkey lizards. Polychrus gutturosus
Rana warzewitschii
Sibon nebulatus
Another Imantodes inornatus
I really love the perspective of this photo
Another monkey lizard
And another Sibon
One of the eyes was solid red, appeared to be blood, no idea what happened here...Terminator edition?
So that wraps up most of the herping I did in Costa Rica in 2012. I omitted a few of my best photos though as they have gone into print in HerpNation, a sequence of Imantodes eating Agalychnis, I am waiting to hear back from Scott about if he minds me posting those here. I also left out the crocodile work I was doing as I plan to write that up for a future HerpNation article. I hope you enjoyed the photos!
Costa Rica Herping, 2012.
Moderator: Scott Waters
- Christopher
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- Naja Bungarus
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Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.
Nice animals and excellent pictures. Simply beautiful. Thanks for sharing these with us
Cheers
Henning
Cheers
Henning
- intermedius
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Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.
your Coniophanes sp is actually Rhadinaea decorata
Great photos and post. The butterflies were amazing.
Great photos and post. The butterflies were amazing.
Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.
Fantastic, Christopher. You have all sorts of great finds and photos. Helmeted Iguanas are such fantastic lizards!
Butterflies:
1) I think the following is a Small Beauty (Colobura dirce)
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7979-L.jpg
2) A beauty. I think Heliconius pachinus
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7990-L.jpg
3) Golden-hooded Tanager
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 9838-L.jpg
4) Blue Dacnis, male
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 9837-L.jpg
5) Not certain but this is a little like Eresia ithomioides:
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7760-L.jpg
Regards,
David
Butterflies:
1) I think the following is a Small Beauty (Colobura dirce)
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7979-L.jpg
2) A beauty. I think Heliconius pachinus
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7990-L.jpg
3) Golden-hooded Tanager
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 9838-L.jpg
4) Blue Dacnis, male
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 9837-L.jpg
5) Not certain but this is a little like Eresia ithomioides:
http://www.chrisgillette.com/Nature/Cos ... 7760-L.jpg
Regards,
David
- Josh Holbrook
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- Contact:
Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.
Great set. The opening picture was my favorite - one of those pictures where you just stare and think "What herps are those hills hiding?"
Are all the really up-close shots (i.e. the frog eggs and salamanders) shot with your 100mm macro? If so, did you have to do a lot of additional cropping, or does it really get that close? Just curious, because I'd like to start doing some aquatic macroinvertebrate photography.
Are all the really up-close shots (i.e. the frog eggs and salamanders) shot with your 100mm macro? If so, did you have to do a lot of additional cropping, or does it really get that close? Just curious, because I'd like to start doing some aquatic macroinvertebrate photography.