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Mammals in Pictures

Mammals are one of the hardest subjects to photograph in Costa Rica.  Generally they are shy, often nocturnal and sometimes rare and endangered.  The most famous residents are some of the most rarely seen – getting pictures of a jaguar or tapir for example is almost impossible without an automatically triggered infrared camera trap.

Mother with infant spider monkeys in the Murcielago sector of Santa Rosa/Guanacaste National park on the trail to Bahia/Playa Hachal. Geoffroy's Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) are called mono aranya in Spanish and are also known as Black-handed Spider Monkey
Spider monkeys are shy and hard to see but Santa Rosa National park has a healthy population

Click on the thumbnails for a more detailed description, location and larger images.

Flying Spider Monkey
Flying Spider Monkey – Central American Spider Monkey, Ateles geoffroyi (Spanish-Mono Colorado or Mono Araña). We often saw monkeys launching from one tree to another but it required fortunate timing to get this dramatic picture along the banks of the Río Frío Cano Negro.
Howler monkey (mono congo) howling
Howler monkey (mono congo) howling
Sloth with baby
Sloth with baby -Sloths are asleep 80% of their lives so if you see one up and moving consider yourself lucky. This Mother AND the baby clinging tightly to her are both awake…double bonus (Manuel Antonio)
Humpback whale Costa Rica
Humpback – Costa Rica is unique for whale watching because both northern hemisphere humpbacks from California and Canada (December-April) and their southern hemisphere Antarctic cousins (July-November) winter in the warm tropical waters.
Bats emerging
Bats headed out of their hollow tree roost in the afternoon at Cabo Blanco Wildlife Refuge
Deer are quite common in Costa Rica though difficult to spot because poaching makes them shy away from people.
Tropical Deer – Deer are quite common in Costa Rica though difficult to spot because poaching makes them shy away from people.
Mono Congo (howler monkey)
Mono Congo (howler monkey)
Vivi holding a squirrel at the wildlife rescue in Carrillo beach
Vivi holding a squirrel at the wildlife rescue in Carrillo beach
Three fingered sloth
Three fingered (sloths always have three toes on each foot, it’s their hands that differ) sloth
Jaguar, Panther onca
Jaguar, Panther onca (Spanish-Tigre). Jaguars are amoung the most endangered of the big cats and encounters in the wild are nearly unheard of. One of the best places to see one is feeding on a freshly killed sea turtle on the beaches of Tortuguero National Park.
Pizote - it's not often we've seen a coatamundi in the wild like this one on the slopes of Cerro Chato. Like urban raccoons in the U.S. and Canada many of them have discovered the ease of city living and are freqeuntly spotted begging from tourists alongside the road or tipping garbage cans in picnic and camping grounds.
Pizote – it’s not often we’ve seen a coatamundi in the wild like this one on the slopes of Cerro Chato. Like urban raccoons in the U.S. and Canada many of them have discovered the ease of city living and are freqeuntly spotted begging from tourists alongside the road or tipping garbage cans in picnic and camping grounds.
Tapir mudbath
Tapir mudbath – Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) or the central American tapir cooling off in a mud bath near Sirena station Corcovado National Park Costa Rica
Silky anteater
Silky anteater with leaf cutter ants on him (the green spots are ants carrying leaves across his back)
Sloth, Manuel Antonio
Sloth, Manuel Antonio
Sloth stretched out
Sloth stretched out – The legs are splayed in so many directions that at first it looked like two sloths
Variegated Squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides)
Variegated Squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) are common all over Costa Rica and come in a variety of colors from white with a black back to solid black around Manuel Antonio, to brown black and white like this one in Monteverde.
Domestic Ocelot Cat
Domestic Cat – before I got a better look I thought for sure I’d spotted an ocelot or other small junge cat
This horse was perfectly happy to munch watercress and other aquatic plants in his soggy pasture sharing with a pair of Jacana
This horse was perfectly happy to munch watercress and other aquatic plants in his soggy pasture sharing with a pair of Jacana
Mono Congo and baby
Mono Congo and baby
Humpback soaring
Unbelievable shot of a humpback whale soaring (from the public domain archives of the USFW)
Howler
Howler
Mono Congo
Mono Congo
Bats roosting in the hollow of a tree
Bats roosting in the hollow of a tree
Pizote (ringtail coatamundi)
Pizote (ringtail coatamundi) Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge
Curious spider monkey
Curious young Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) watches us on the hiking trail Santa Rosa National park
Infant spider monkey
Infant spider monkey peeking down from his perch on his mom’s belly – Murcielago sector on the trail to Bahia/Playa Hachal
Mom and dad and a capuchin
My parents spot a white faced capuchin along one of the trails in Hacienda Barú wildlife refuge
Two toed sloth, (Choloepus hoffmanni)
This two fingered (sloths always have three toes on each foot, it’s their hands that differ) sloth appears nearly every night in the beach almond over the patio at Sobre las Olas near the north end of Playa Negra north of Cahutia Costa Rica.
Beagleville
Beagleville – Rio Piedras Blancas near camp EdEase on the Sendero de Oro
Nap time Aviarios Del Caribe Sloth Center
Nap time Aviarios Del Caribe Sloth Center
Buttercup sloth
Buttercup was the first sloth rescued at Aviarios Del Caribe Sloth Center
Bats on the ceiling of a palenque at centro neotropico Sarapiqui
Bats on the ceiling of a palenque at centro neotropico Sarapiqui
Sloth blob
My typical picture of a sloth. She’s the dark area in the y of the tree braches at the dead center of the frame.
Baby spider monkey eating
Baby spider monkey eating from a bottle at the Osa Wildlife Rescue
Mule
Mule
Yield ???????? The rule of thumb is that if the big black bull has horns spanning more than a meter the cattle drive has the right of way.
Yield ???????? The rule of thumb is that if the big black bull has horns spanning more than a meter the cattle drive has the right of way.
White faced capuchin
White faced capuchin Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve
Angry monkeys
Angry monkeys. White faced capuchins are very territorial and when a hiking trail crosses their path you’re likely to be challenged with screeches, branch shaking and twig (or much worse things) throwing
All stretched out
All stretched out
Mono congo and baby
Mono congo and baby
Howler monkey
Howler monkeys’ diet consists mainly of leaves
capuchin
capuchin
Colt drinking
Colt drinking in the San Gerardo de Dota Valley
Tracks. Probably a racoon
Tracks. Probably a racoon and a heron that passed in the night.
Mother and baby humpback whales
Mother and baby humpback whales
Variegated Squirrel
Variegated Squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) are common all over Costa Rica and come in a variety of colors from white with a black back to solid black around Manuel Antonio, to brown black and white like this one in Monteverde.
Tapir - Corcovado national park
Tapir – Corcovado national park
Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii) aka the central American tapir napping in the sand between spears of sharply barbed mother in law's tongue plants, Sirena Corcovado
Tapir, Sirena Corcovado – Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) aka the central American tapir napping in the sand between spears of sharply barbed mother in law’s tongue plants

Ray & Sue

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Photos
  • Tortuguero Beach – National Park & Sea Turtles Nesting
  • Tortuguero Village & Canals Photos
  • Guayabo National Monument
  • San Gerardo de Dota National Park
  • Karen Mogensen Nature Reserve
  • Lower Savegre & Rafiki
  • Savegre National Park
  • Pacuare River Rafting Overnight
  • Portalón Estero Rey National Wildlife Refuge
  • Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • Rainmaker Biological Reserve Photos
  • Hills of Portalón Wildlife Refuge
  • Funny, Quirky, Weird – Costa Rica Humor
  • Bahía Junquillal National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • Playa Hermosa-Punta Mala National Wildlife Refuge Photos
  • La Cangreja National Park Photos
  • Pacuare Gilligan’s Island
  • Rincón de la Vieja – Hacienda Guachipelín Photos
  • Quirky, Weird, Funny – Costa Rica Humor
  • Lankester Botanical Gardens Photos



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