Day 7: Manuel Antonio National Park
Highlight of the Day: Sloth
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We spent all day at Manuel Antonio National Park.
Although Manuel Antonio National Park is Costa Rica's smallest national park, the diversity of wildlife in its 6.83 km² is unequaled with 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds.
View from the beach.
The abundant wildlife here is most active in the early morning, so we got an early start. Our guide, Flako, is a local who was extremely knowledgeable. Flako lead us along the “Sloth Valley Trail”.
At the beginning we stopped at the beach where Flako created a grasshopper from a palm leaf for Sophia. He also opened up a coconut so that we could try the fungus and milk inside. The coconut palm takes good care of her offspring. She equips them with a hard shell so that they can even swim. Also, it provides them with a fungus that stimulates root growth. Once the coconut starts rooting and growing, the seedling uses the milk as its first fluid and nutrition. Miraculous nature.
Flako with Sophia and Alexandra, both are holding their grass hoppers.
On the way, we could observe some large lizards. A female was digging a nest.
Bats!
High in a tree, a large Two-toed Sloth was sleeping quite comfortably in the branches. The light brown animal cannot regulate his body temperature and has a very slow metabolism. He only eats leaves that are very slowly digested. The sloth comes down from the tree only once a week to go to the bathroom, digging a 10 inch deep hole and burying their excretes which are about one third of their body weight.
The Three-toed Sloths (below) have a much darker fur and are much smaller. We saw a couple of them, one scratching itself constantly.
Another Three-toed sloth started moving through the branches... slowly.
We also observed White faced Capuchin monkeys close-up ...
... squirrel monkeys and...
howler monkeys!
All the way we heard one or two howler monkeys crying, but it was only on our way back that we could catch a glimpse of them. There were a male, a couple of females and a baby high up in the trees.
Howler monkeys are the only ones in Costa Rica that do not groom themselves and therefore have more parasites and a shorter life expectancy. All three monkey species live on different heights in the rain forest, each with its own level so to speak.
I briefly saw a morpho disappearing into the woods.
The only colorful frog we saw was a sleeping one, with an oval shape, hanging on a large banana leaf. I would have never guessed that this was a frog. The eyes – normally protruding and bright red – were covered with a special membrane, all legs and toes were hidden. It turned out that this was the famous Flying Tree Frog who is the subject on so many postcards and book covers.
We returned to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon, we came back to the beach. While jumping off the zodiac I slipped and dipped into the water – with video camera and all. Surprisingly, the video camera still functioned…
The kids enjoyed the warm water and were playing in the waves. After about an hour, Alexandra decided to swim back to the ship, and of course, Sophia wanted to swim too… She was absolutely fearless and assumed that swimming the approximate 1.3 miles was a piece of cake. A fellow passenger borrowed Sophia a small life jacket, so that she was at least floating. She held on to Heiko’s back but at least kicked her legs all the way. Alexandra was really brave and swam the whole way.
In the afternoon, Gustavo gave a very detailed presentation about the Biodiversity of Costa Rica that nicely summarized the species we had encountered during this week.
After our farewell dinner it was time to pack….
More information
Official Lindblad Expedition Report of the Day by Julio Fernandez-Amon, Naturalist & Historian