El Residente
36 Wild Side by Ryan Piercy
Welcome to the Jungle!
T
his article marks the 100th in this series on wildlife in Costa Rica, so for something special I decided that instead of profiling a specific animal, it was a good opportunity to take a general look at the wildlife throughout all of the country.
Named the Rich Coast, Costa Rica is certainly rich. Perhaps the Spaniards who first arrived here did not encounter the gold and riches they had dreamed of, but today’s explorer will find a country that is resplendent with a different kind of wealth; it is rich in a huge variety of animals, plants, insects, and more. This small country, which comprises less than one-third of 1% of the world’s land mass, is home to nearly 5% of the entire world’s biodiversity; the highest concentration of biodiversity anywhere on our planet!
Whether a visitor is a scientist, amateur photographer, or simply a passerby, one can’t help but become enthralled with the abundance of species encountered here. The variety is
even more astounding when one considers that Costa Rica is such a small territory, only 51,100 square kilometers in area. It was due to the formation of the territory itself, along with Panama, about three to five million
