Page 59 - World of Animals - Issue #36

Sniff around for tapirs Know your toucan

The Baird’s tapir is the size and shape of a pig and has the
prehensile trunk of an elephant, but it’s actually more closely
related to horses and rhinos. It’s Costa Rica’s biggest land
mammal, and its range is restricted to protected forest land such
as Corcovado, Monteverde and Santa Rosa National Park. It is
most active at dawn and dusk, when it goes foraging for fruits on

the forest floor. Although the tapir moves with a silent grace that

belies its stocky appearance, tour guides find it easy to track down
because they rarely roam far from water sources. Keel-billed toucan
The most recognisable of all Costa Rica’s toucan
species, the highly sociable, keel-billed toucan travels

around the rainforest in small flocks of a dozen or so
individuals and can be seen at dawn or dusk.

Chestnut-mandibled toucan
Costa Rica’s largest toucan inhabits lowland forest
habitats. While the chestnut-mandibled toucan mostly
dines on fruit, its versatile beak also enables it to make
meals of lizards and insects.

Hang out with the sloth Collared aracari
Aracaris are medium-sized members of the toucan
family. They are stronger fliers than their cumbersome

These notoriously, well, slothful, creatures can make them difficult to spot against brethren, darting between treetops with a shrill ‘cheep-
can be found lazing in tree canopies their surroundings. The Sloth Sanctuary, eep’ call.
throughout Costa Rica. You’ll have to located south of Limon, offers a canoe
move slowly to catch sight of one, as the trip that takes you into the heart of their
moss that grows across their coarse fur preferred rainforest habitat.
Discover the

butterfly that

disappears Fiery-billed aracari
The easiest way to distinguish between the two native
aracari species is to check your map; the collared is
before your eyes typically found on the Caribbean side of the country, the

fiery-billed on the Pacific.
Costa Rica is home to over 1,200 species of
butterfly, of which the striking blue morpho is

the most famous. It calls the tropical forests
home, where it can be surprisingly well-
hidden, since it spends much of its time on

the forest floor with its wings closed – the
undersides are a rather more understated
brown colour. Venture into a clearing or a

stream, however, and the vivid blue flashes Emerald toucanet
of a morpho in flight is unmistakeable. It Toucanets are toucans which thrive at high-altitude.

They live in open woodland, or humid cloud forests. The
appears to blink in and out of existence as it emerald toucanet is one of seven species of ‘mountain
beats its half-blue, half-brown wings. toucanet’, all of which are mainly green in colour.
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