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10 Interesting Facts About Wildlife in Costa Rica

1. 1

   Red-eyed tree frogs settle territorial disputes with a "dance-off"

   The frog that can literally shake its butt the hardest signals to its rival that it is bigger and the other had better step down.

2. 2

   A toucan's beak is mostly for thermo-regulation

   Blood vessels that run up and down the beak allow the bird to cool down by moving it back and forth, increasing blood flow that radiates heat into the atmosphere. When the toucan needs to warm up, it restricts blood flow to its beak.

3. 3

   Sloths come down once a week to use the bathroom — and there is a reason

   It allows a moth that lives in the sloth's fur to lay eggs in the sloth's poop. After hatching and pupating, the moth offspring fly up to another sloth and live in its fur. Nitrogen the moths bring back from the poop fertilizes algae that grow in the sloth's fur, giving it a greenish tint and providing camouflage in the canopy.

4. 4

   Opossums are immune to pit-viper venom

   The only marsupial in the Americas has a superpower: their blood is not susceptible to snake venom, so they can shrug off the bite of a pit viper.

5. 5

   Woodpeckers wrap their tongues around their skulls

   The wrap acts as a shock absorber that protects the brain from concussion every time the bird pecks a tree.

6. 6

   Costa Rica has two macaw species — both monogamous

   Both the Great Green Macaw and the Scarlet Macaw mate for life and help equally in raising their offspring. Great role models we can all follow!

7. 7

   Female sea turtles return to the exact beach where they hatched

   They orient themselves using the Earth's magnetic field — a natural GPS that brings them across entire oceans back to the sands they were born on.

8. 8

   Owls are the perfect predator

   Under the cover of darkness, owls are silent flyers that rely on sharp vision and exceptional hearing. Their ears are offset, allowing them to triangulate exactly where the sound of potential prey is coming from.

9. 9

   Spider monkeys swing without thumbs

   Spider Monkeys are the only Costa Rican monkeys that move through brachiation — swinging hand-over-hand from branch to branch. They accomplish this without thumbs; it is believed they evolved to lose those digits because thumbs would snag on branches during the hooking motion.

10. 10

    Anteaters walk on their knuckles to protect their claws

    With tiny mouths and no teeth, anteaters feed by using their long, sticky tongues to lap up ants and termites. Their sharp claws tear into termite mounds and defend against predators, so the animals walk on their knuckles to keep them sharp.