Abstract
In February, 1989 we had the opportunity to visit Costa Rica. Our visit was cut short by the illness and death of my mother-in-law; and tucked between the weaning of hyacinths and the start of handfeeding season. After being an armchair traveler for 14 years, I was finally on my way to see macaws in the wild. I came away having even more respect for the researchers and photographers who study the tropics.
We found the Costa Rican people friendly, clean, hardworking and helpful. The native language is Spanish. Though English is spoken in the major cities, it is helpful to have some knowledge of Spanish.
Paved roads are common, but outside the larger cities they may not be lighted at night. There are frequently no center lines marking roadways. Rural travel at night due to the lack of light, occasional pot holes, gravel and intervals of dirt roads is slow. Most Costa Ricans do not have cars, but use the roads on foot, bicycle or horse. Cattle, pigs, iguanas and an assortment of other critters often sleep in the road. Four wheel drive is usually unnecessary unless you have been specifically advised ahead of time. Ask for road conditions before you go from the locals. Do not trust maps. Often they are old (labeling asphalt roads as gravel) or, even worse, new (showing planned roads that do not yet exist). Tours can be very helpful to first time visitors. They are often bilingual and can take you right to the parks. There are many national parks which operate like those in the U.S. However, should you wish to go into a biological reserve, special permission is required ahead of time. Poachers are a problem thoughout the country and you may have to sign in and out with the rangers so they know you did come out.
Le Selva Biological Reserve: Men who once were hunters are now the park rangers, protectors of wildlife. An ingenious concept. These people know where the animals are and how the animals act. They may have been poachers after wild cats or macaws, who now are used to hunt the animals for radio tracking instead of killing them. We went to Costa Rica in February during the non-rainy season. Unfortunately, the country didn't know that. In the lowland tropical rainforest on the Atlantic side of the country we encountered the heaviest rainstorms I have ever seen. We also came in contact with the most amazing variety of wildlife. Bugs of every description found their way on to our paths. Beautiful butterflies, Leaf Cutter Ants carrying their huge leaf pieces "Hansel and Gretel style" into the woods, other poisonous ants and bugs that could ruin your next few days or worse. We were warned about snakes continuously, but saw lizards more commonly. Photographers are a particular delight to these creatures, as they are foolish enough to stay in one place for a long time playing with their lenses. We live in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, but the area we inhabit is so benign. I never think twice about reaching out to hold onto a branch to help me down an embankment, or walk through dense undergrowth. To do this in the lowland tropical rainforest would be to demand retribution. The lush, tropical growth in conjunction with the vast variety of wildlife has created a necessity of nature to combat total destruction. Amazing palm trees with huge nuts, that would be the envy of macaws as well as monkeys, were surrounded with two to three inch long spikes, These spikes were as sharp as a sewing needle.
This was the area we had come to in search of the Buffon's Macaw, known locally as '' Guara verde.'' We were told by the locals that '' Guara Roja", "red" macaws (Scarlets) used to live in the area. Some told us that as recent as 1968 Scarlets were seen there. Scattered nuts on the ground signal previous feeding feasts of birds and other animals. We did see Sulfurbreasted Toucans, White Crowned and Mealy Parrots. We also saw Monkey Pod trees which have coconut shaped nuts that many animals including a variety of birds enjoy. Buffon's are a nomadic type of bird, usually seen in small groups. However, heavy rain storms kept the Buffon's under cover as we trekked through the underbrush.
Deforestation of the lowland tropical rainforest occurred for the following reasons: cattle ranching, pineapples, coffee, cocoa, strawberries, ornamentals such as cut ferns for the floral industry, and lumber. The many hardwoods are used in making furniture.
There are many visitors to Poas (an inactive volcano) as well as the other reserves and parks in Costa Rica that are conservation minded. They come from many nationalities; English, French and German as well as the native Spanish was spoken. School children take field trips to Poas. Educating them early is key toward that country's ecology. Because of the different languages present, multilingual pamphlets would be extremely helpful. There is a national campaign to get people more interested in their environment and Costa Rica could be a model to show other countries, including our own, how to do it.
Carara Biological Reserve: It was in Carara that we saw our first wild macaws. This is what they called a dry rainforest with mangroves and a climate similar to the chaparral of southern California. Dry, but right on the ocean. I was surprised to see the macaws so close to the ocean. Up till then we had seen many more in the hands of aviculturists in Costa Rica. The Scarlet pair we first saw was nesting in a dead tree about 75 feet tall. They nested in the large trunk, the base of which was 2 1/2 feet in diameter, and remained almost that big in the area the nest was. The male was standing guard as we approached in the late afternoon. He was off on one of the branches overlooking the nest, perhaps ten feet away from the opening. The female came out to check out the intruders (us), looked around rather quickly and descended back into the nest. We saw other Scarlets as well. Two that stopped along the road to watch the cars roll by and were unimpressed with our picture taking as they looked down on us from their 100 foot perch (they must have known my lens was incapable of getting a good shot from that distance). The macaws here feed on Coroso Palms, which tastes like coconut and Wiscoyol Palm, which has date-like clusters. Gary Stiles, a well known researcher in Costa Rica, estimates there are fewer than 300 Scarlets flying free in Costa Rica. Most of these are in Carara Biological Reserve where approximately 75 percent of the total population exists. Although their range was once much larger, they are now extirpated in all but the national parks and wildlife reserves. More Scarlets probably exist in cages than in the wild in Costa Rica. Birds outside protected areas are vigorously persecuted. In Carara, the non-nesting Scarlets and adolescents roost in the estuary along with the pelicans. Trappers are known to travel up the river by small boat, from the Pacific Ocean which is about a mile away from the reserve, and capture the macaws. They are taken out by boats into international waters by bigger and bigger vessels. Nesting macaws are saved from this fate. But future breeding stock (juveniles) is diminished.