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  3. Costa Rica

Costa Rica

North America

Capital: San JoséDecember to April

307

Documented species

18

Parks and reserves

2

Dive sites

Costa Rica occupies only a tiny fraction of the planet's land surface and holds around five per cent of its known biodiversity, a concentration explained by its position as a bridge between two continents, by its two ocean slopes and by a volcanic cordillera that creates dozens of microclimates. Within a few hours you go from Pacific mangroves to cloud forests such as Monteverde, wrapped in permanent mist, and from there to the rainforests of the Caribbean. The Osa peninsula, with Corcovado park, keeps the last great lowland tropical rainforest on the Central American Pacific coast. The country protects around a quarter of its territory.

Nature in Costa Rica

National animal: The white-tailed deer is the national animal and the clay-coloured thrush the national bird

Did you know?

Ostional beach hosts the arribadas: over a few nights each month, tens of thousands of olive ridley turtles come ashore to nest at once and can cover the sand completely. There are so many that the last to arrive dig up the nests of the first, so the local community has legal authorisation to collect the eggs laid in the earliest hours, which would be destroyed anyway, in one of the few regulated turtle egg harvests in the world.

Biodiversity profile

Conservation

Costa Rica reversed its deforestation: it went from around twenty-one per cent forest cover in the late 1980s to more than half the country today, through a pioneering system of payments to landowners for environmental services. The golden toad of Monteverde, gone by 1989, was one of the first extinctions linked to climate change.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Ostional during the arribadas, above all between July and December. Tortuguero between July and October for green turtles. Monteverde between February and May for quetzals.

Natural phenomena in Costa Rica

  • Olive ridley arribada at Ostional — July to November (largest arribadas; smaller ones occur year-round)
  • Sea turtle nesting in Costa Rica — July to October at Tortuguero (peak in August and September); March to July for leatherbacks

Parks and reserves

National Park

Chirripó

The roof of Costa Rica and of all southern Central America, with high-altitude páramo and traces of Quaternary glaciation.

See parkInternational Park

La Amistad

The largest nature reserve in Central America, the only binational protected area shared by Costa Rica and Panama

See parkWorld Heritage Site (Natural)

Área de Conservación Guanacaste

The largest tropical dry forest restoration project in the world, with a gradient running from the sea to the volcanoes.

See parkNational Park

Cocos Island

Nicknamed the Galápagos of Central America; one of the greatest concentrations of hammerhead sharks on the planet

See parkNational Park

Corcovado

Described by National Geographic as "the most biologically intense place on Earth"

See parkNational Park

Palo Verde

The most important seasonal wetland in Central America for migratory waterbirds, with up to 60,000 birds gathered in the dry season

See parkNational Park

Tortuguero

The most important green turtle nesting site in the western hemisphere

See parkNational Park

Barra Honda

A limestone cave system more than 60 million years old, with stalactites growing at barely a centimetre every thousand years

See parkNational Park

Braulio Carrillo

Crossed by a motorway designed to do the least possible damage to the rainforest, with only two official stopping points

See parkNational Park

Cahuita

Entry by voluntary donation instead of a fixed fee, a pioneering model of Costa Rican community tourism

See park
National Park

Los Quetzales

One of the best places in Costa Rica to watch the resplendent quetzal outside a private sanctuary, right beside the Inter-American Highway

See parkNational Park

Manuel Antonio

One of the smallest national parks in the world but among the most visited, with rainforest beaches and endangered squirrel monkeys

See parkNational Park

Marino Ballena

At low tide a sand formation traces the perfect outline of a whale's tail, which gives the park its name

See parkBiological Reserve

Monteverde

Founded by pacifist American Quakers who moved to Costa Rica in 1951 to escape conscription

See parkNational Park

Rincon de la Vieja

An active volcano with fumaroles, boiling mud pools and thermal rivers, source of the Colorado River

See parkNational Park

Santa Rosa

The setting of the Battle of Santa Rosa in 1856, in which Costa Rica defeated the American filibuster William Walker

See parkNational Park

Arenal Volcano

One of the youngest and, until 2010, most active volcanoes in Costa Rica, with an unexpected eruption in 1968 that buried three villages

See parkNational Park

Poás Volcano

One of the largest and most accessible active volcanic craters in the world, with a turquoise acid lake inside it

See park

Diving and snorkelling

Wall/Pelagic

Cocos Island

An oceanic island of volcanic origin surrounded by seamounts. Bajo Alcyone, Dirty Rock and Manuelita are the go-to sites for schools of hammerheads.

See dive sitePelagic/Rocky reef

Caño Island

A biological reserve off the Osa Peninsula, regarded as "the little Cocos Island" for its pelagic wildlife.

See dive site

Wildlife you can see now

What is worth looking out for this month in Costa Rica?

Kemp's RidleyCritically Endangered

Kemp's Ridley

Lepidochelys kempii

Now is a good time: Olive ridley arribada at Ostional (July to November (largest arribadas; smaller ones occur year-round))

Green TurtleEndangered

Green Turtle

Chelonia mydas

Now is a good time: Sea turtle nesting in Costa Rica (July to October at Tortuguero (peak in August and September); March to July for leatherbacks)

Hawksbill TurtleCritically Endangered

Hawksbill Turtle

Eretmochelys imbricata

Now is a good time: Sea turtle nesting in Costa Rica (July to October at Tortuguero (peak in August and September); March to July for leatherbacks)

Now is a good time: Sea turtle nesting in Costa Rica (July to October at Tortuguero (peak in August and September); March to July for leatherbacks)

Similar countries

Where else might I want to travel?

Belize

Same region: Central America and the Caribbean

Panama

Same region: Central America and the Caribbean

Guatemala

Same region: Central America and the Caribbean

Honduras

Same region: Central America and the Caribbean

Species documented in Costa Rica

Filter
Class
Family
Habitat
Diet
Conservation

307 species found

Related guides

  • Birds in Costa Rica13 species
  • Where to see Monkeys in Costa Rica12 species
  • Reptiles in Costa Rica11 species
  • Threatened mammals of Costa Rica9 species

Keep exploring

Based on what we already know about Costa Rica.

ParkChirripóDivingCocos Island

Explore on the map

Interactive map

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Leatherback Sea TurtleVulnerable

Leatherback Sea Turtle

Dermochelys coriacea

Grooved Brain CoralCritically Endangered

Grooved Brain Coral

Diploria labyrinthiformis

Elkhorn CoralCritically Endangered

Elkhorn Coral

Acropora palmata

Staghorn CoralCritically Endangered

Staghorn Coral

Acropora cervicornis

Great Green MacawCritically Endangered

Great Green Macaw

Ara ambiguus

Scalloped HammerheadCritically Endangered

Scalloped Hammerhead

Sphyrna lewini

Great HammerheadCritically Endangered

Great Hammerhead

Sphyrna mokarran

Oceanic Whitetip SharkCritically Endangered

Oceanic Whitetip Shark

Carcharhinus longimanus

Hawksbill TurtleCritically Endangered

Hawksbill Turtle

Eretmochelys imbricata

American EelEndangered

American Eel

Anguilla rostrata

Blue WhaleEndangered

Blue Whale

Balaenoptera musculus

Spotted Eagle RayEndangered

Spotted Eagle Ray

Aetobatus narinari

Giant MantaEndangered

Giant Manta

Mobula birostris

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