Sunday, September 4, 2016

Check! Check! Check!... we can learn a lot about Corcovado National Park!


At OSA WILD we have created a new tool for our clients to learn and remember what we have seen and learned from on our overnight tours.


The idea started when some of our clients gathered together at night at the Sirena station with our local guides to remember all the different animals we have seen during our hikes. Some birdwatchers are very serious about checking their list, so we now can please you all to have the necessary information and start checking! 


I have seen it all; people who forgot their list at the hotel, the ones that soak it when we did the river crossing, and others that are not very interest on it… but we have also the ones that are extremely interested and they take it along every hike to mark down every new thing we can see at Sirena Biological Station.

Corcovado National Park 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”. The park conserves the largest primary forest on the American Pacific coastline and one of the few remaining sizable areas of lowland tropical rainforests in the world. 

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 800 tree species.
A beautiful Aracari, Fiery-billed, you could get the 
chance to check out of the check list!            


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 contains 50% of the mammal population that we find in the entire country, and we have more than 450 species of birds. Even though we cannot write it all down in our checklist, I have to say that it is really exciting to see how our clients are eager to find new species to check.