Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

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Christopher
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Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

Post by Christopher »

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.
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Jungle vegetation
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One of my favorite snakes I have found, the gorgeous Halloween snake, Oxyrhopus petolarius
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A view of the top of the head
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And one of my favorite snake photos I have taken, a head on view
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Red-eyed tree frogs were abundant, Agalychnis callidryas. This one had bumps of white across the back
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A pair in amplexus
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A collection of eggs laid about a water source
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The developing tadpoles
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A young amieva
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A lizard I was happy to find, Norops biporcatus
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Close up of the face
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And Anolis capito
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A large male Basiliscus basiliscus. Such neat lizards, not only can they walk on water but they look like this? Awesome!
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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!
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A few arboreal salamanders Bolitoglossa specie(s)
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A gorgeous eyelash viper that had a neat little pink pattern. Bothriechis schlegelii
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Another individual in the same area, more defined pattern
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A gorgeous fer-de-lance, Bothrops asper. So much more pretty than the muddy looking variety I am used to seeing in Peru.
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Close-up of the face
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The view down one of the trails at Cangreja NP
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And the park's namesake
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Helmeted iguanas, very neat little lizards. Corytophanes cristatus
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A large marine toad, Bufo marinus, next to my flash for size reference
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A pair in amplexus, love the reflection
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Pretty sure this is Bufo haematiticus
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Hypsiboas rosembergi were very common and vociferous
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Check out those feet!
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Some Imantodes, I love this genus. Here is I. inornatus
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And I. cenchoa
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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
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And a very neat beetle, looked to be a species of long horn
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I am fascinated by symbiotic relationships, and the relationship between acacia trees and ants in really neat and interesting...unless you bump into them
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Here a young frog met its end with a large spider, hard to even tell what is left
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And a very ambitious scorpion
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More butterflies and other inverts
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A moth
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A terrifying way to go...I felt pretty bad for the moth
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I couldnt tell if this spider was eating a molt or another spider
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A molting cicada emerging from its larval form
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A really neat looking caterpillar, definitely says look but dont touch!
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A very unusual little insect, no idea what this was
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An impressive scorpion, looked to be a Centruroides
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A very happy beetle
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Web casting spider
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Paraque, I think
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And a few gorgeous little birds
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Toucans were very fun to watch and listen to in the mornings
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Some very cute bats I found along a river bank
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A hummingbird sitting on its nest
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Back to herps, a pretty little gecko, Sphaerodactylus species
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Check out those "eyelashes"!
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A Coniophanes species
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Leptodeira septentrionalis
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A brute of a little lizard, Lepidophyma flavimaculatum, I believe
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A very exciting snake found by Miguel. Micrurus alleni
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The snake took off and swam across a stream with ease
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A common but very charismatic snake, Oxybelis aeneus
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Stunning lizards, I am fascinated by monkey lizards. Polychrus gutturosus
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Rana warzewitschii
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Sibon nebulatus
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Another Imantodes inornatus
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I really love the perspective of this photo
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Another monkey lizard
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And another Sibon
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One of the eyes was solid red, appeared to be blood, no idea what happened here...Terminator edition?
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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!
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Naja Bungarus
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Joined: May 19th, 2014, 1:08 pm
Location: Norway / Thailand

Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

Post by Naja Bungarus »

Nice animals and excellent pictures. Simply beautiful. Thanks for sharing these with us ;)

Cheers :beer:
Henning
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intermedius
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Joined: March 22nd, 2012, 7:19 pm

Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

Post by intermedius »

your Coniophanes sp is actually Rhadinaea decorata

Great photos and post. The butterflies were amazing.
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moloch
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Joined: June 16th, 2010, 1:26 pm

Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

Post by moloch »

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
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Josh Holbrook
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Location: Western North Carolina
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Re: Costa Rica Herping, 2012.

Post by Josh Holbrook »

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.
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