page_title: Corcovado National Park
section_title: Biodiversity
hierarchical_section_title: Corcovado National Park / Biodiversity
caption_attribution_description: Español: Esta fotografía de este tamandúa fue tomada en el Parque Nacional Corcovado English: This photograph of this tamandua was taken in the Corcovado National Park
context_page_description: Corcovado National Park is a National Park on the Osa Peninsula in Osa Canton, southwestern Costa Rica, which is part of the Osa Conservation Area. It was established on 24 October 1975, and encompasses an area of 424 square kilometres. It is the largest park in Costa Rica and protects about a third of the Osa Peninsula. It is widely considered the crown jewel in the extensive system of national parks and biological reserves spread across the country. The ecological variety is quite stunning. National Geographic has called it "the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity". Not only is the park very popular with tropical ecologists, a visitor can expect to see an abundance of wildlife.
  The park conserves the largest primary forest on the American Pacific coastline and one of the few remaining sizable areas of lowland tropical forests in the world. Historically, logging has taken place in lowland areas because those areas are more easily accessible and contain the largest and most economically valuable trees. But those habitats, which feature diverse vegetation, are also usually the richest in biodiversity.
context_section_description: Corcovado is home to a sizable population of the endangered Baird's tapir and even a small population of the very rare harpy eagle. The park's rivers and lagoons are home to populations of both the American crocodile and spectacled caiman, along with bull sharks. Corcovado is also one of the final strongholds of the jaguar within Central America and several other felines are also present, including ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, and puma. All four Costa Rican monkey species can be seen within the park, including the endangered Central American squirrel monkey, white-faced capuchin, mantled howler, and Geoffroy's spider monkey. Other mammals present include two-toed and three-toed sloth, collared peccary, northern tamandua and silky anteater.  Poison dart frogs and several species of snake (including the venomous fer-de-lance and bushmaster) are also common within the park.
  The elusive Jaguar is a large, beautiful and potentially intimidating feline but is generally regarded as shy and harmless. They are capable of taking down prey as large as Tapir but appear to be reclusive and uninterested in human activity.
  Most animal sightings can be expected on the coastal track, with scarlet macaws (the largest population in the country) flying overhead, hermit crabs on the beach, pelicans fishing in the sea and, on the sections that go slightly inland, spider monkeys (take care not to get urinated on when they are in a tree overhead), tamandua anteaters, pumas, white faced capuchin monkeys, lineated woodpeckers and coatis (to name just a few). With luck one might even spot a tapir, even though they are nocturnal. Corcovado is also a good place to spot the red-eyed tree frog, as well as the glass frog with its transparent skin, and the enamel-bright poison-arrow frogs. From Estación Sirena one can follow many short tracks, on which one can also take short night-strolls into the forest with a good chance of running into a tapir. They are impressive to see but harmless if left in peace. Jaguars are present and some individuals frequent the beach near Madrigal at night. One is very likely to see their tracks, sometimes very fresh and frequent, but very unlikely to see the actual cat. The most common animal in the park is by far the white-nosed coati, which one can expect to encounter dozens of times on the beach hike between La Leona and Sirena, digging for and feeding on the abundant moon crabs.
  Other animals in the park include Central American squirrel monkeys, mantled howler monkeys, both two-toed and three-toed sloths, agoutis, giant anteaters, great curassows, black hawks, spectacled owls, hummingbirds, 220 species of butterflies, golden orb spiders (who build huge webs), otters and raccoons. Four species of sea turtle (green, Pacific ridley, hawksbill, and leatherback) nest on the beaches.
  The abundance in wildlife can in part be explained by the variety of vegetation types, at least 13, including montane forest (more than half the park), cloud forest, jolillo forest (palm swamp), prairie forest, alluvial plains forest, swamp forest, freshwater herbaceous swamp and mangrove, together holding over 500 tree species, including purple heart, poponjoche, nargusta, banak, cow tree, espave and crabwood. Another reason for the diversity (as with all of Costa Rica) is that it lies on a north-south corridor for flora and fauna; part of the "land bridge" and wildlife corridor that links the large continents of North America and South America. Corcovado has been merchandised worldwide as one of the places with greatest biodiversity on the planet. In 41800 hectares, Corcovado houses 3% of the world's biodiversity. Two decades ago the National Geographic Society defined it as the most biologically intense place in the world.
caption: Tamandua anteater
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