The Flora & Fauna Guide
The animals you will actually meet living on the Gold Coast, from the howlers that wake you up to the one thing in the estuary you should take seriously. Where to see each, when, and an honest read on whether to worry.
88 species
Aedes mosquito
Aedes aegypti
Small, black and white striped, bites by day, and carries dengue. The one insect on this coast worth a change of habit.
Africanized honey bee
Apis mellifera scutellata hybrid
Looks exactly like the honey bee it is, behaves very differently when its hive is threatened. Swarms move through in the dry season and set up in walls.
American crocodile
Crocodylus acutus
The one animal on this coast to take seriously. Big, patient, and present in the estuaries and river mouths, including the famous one at Tamarindo.
Bark scorpion
Centruroides species
The reason you shake out your shoes. Small, pale, fond of towels and beds, with a sting that is genuinely painful and very rarely more than that here.
Beach almond
Terminalia catappa
The big tiered tree along every beach, dropping hard green fruit that the macaws crack and the squirrels hoard.
Black spiny-tailed iguana
Ctenosaura similis
The garrobo. On every rock, wall and beach in Coco, and officially the fastest lizard on earth. It only bites if you pick it up, so do not pick it up.
Black vulture
Coragyps atratus
The zopilote. On every roof, every roadside and every thermal, in numbers. The cleanup crew of the whole coast, and a great deal more useful than it is pretty.
Blue morpho butterfly
Morpho peleides
A flash of electric blue the size of your hand along a shady track, then gone. Guanacaste has them.
Boa constrictor
Boa imperator
The big snake most likely to turn up in a Coco garden or roof. Not venomous, useful against rats, and best left alone or relocated by someone who knows how.
Bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
The pod that appears alongside the boat on the way out and rides the bow wave for a mile. Common off the whole coast and the most reliable marine mammal here.
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea species
The veranera. Sheets of magenta, orange, white and purple over every wall in every town, flowering hardest in the dry season when everything else has given up.
Brown pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
The line of big brown birds skimming the waves in formation, then one folds and drops like a stone. The most watchable thing on the beach.
Bull shark
Carcharhinus leucas
The reason experienced divers come to the Bat Islands. Big, stocky, and one of the few sharks that deserves the reputation.
Bullhorn acacia
Vachellia cornigera
The cornizuelo. A thorny shrub whose fat hollow thorns house an army of stinging ants that attack anything touching the plant.
Cane toad
Rhinella horribilis
The big brown toad under the porch light. Harmless to you, and genuinely dangerous to a dog that picks it up. If you have a dog, this is the page to read.
Cashew
Anacardium occidentale
The marañón. The nut you know grows on the end of a sweet, juicy false fruit that Costa Ricans turn into juice and jam.
Ceiba
Ceiba pentandra
The kapok, and the tallest tree in the dry forest by a distance. A trunk like a column with buttress roots you could park a car between.
Central American agouti
Dasyprocta punctata
The guatusa. A rodent the size of a small dog on long deer-like legs, trotting through the undergrowth with a fallen fruit in its mouth.
Central American rattlesnake
Crotalus simus
The dangerous snake of the Guanacaste dry forest. Thick, patterned, and it warns you with the rattle.
Cicada
Family Cicadidae
The chicharra. The rising electric scream from the trees that defines the hot months. You will never see the insect and you will never stop hearing it.
Coconut palm
Cocos nucifera
The postcard tree, and the one most likely to actually injure you on a beach. A falling coconut is a bowling ball from ten metres.
Collared peccary
Dicotyles tajacu
The saíno, a wild pig that is not quite a pig, moving through the dry forest in a snuffling herd. Common in the national parks, not in town.
Common basilisk
Basiliscus basiliscus
The Jesus Christ lizard. Brown, crested, sitting by every stream and estuary, and when startled it runs across the surface of the water on its hind legs.
Common house gecko
Hemidactylus frenatus
The small pale lizard on the ceiling that chirps at night and eats the mosquitoes. Every house has several and every house is better for it.
Common opossum
Didelphis marsupialis
The zorro pelón, the bald fox, which is neither. A grey marsupial with a rat's tail that raids the bins, hisses when caught, and plays dead if that fails.
Costa Rican zebra tarantula
Aphonopelma seemanni
A native of exactly this dry forest, living in a burrow with a silk-lined door. Big, striped, slow, and far more frightened of you than the reverse.
Coyote
Canis latrans
Yes, coyotes. Their range runs south through Central America, and the dry forest and pasture of Guanacaste suit them fine.
Elephant beetle
Megasoma elephas
One of the heaviest insects on earth, the size of a small fist, with a horn and a coat of fine velvet.
Flamboyant
Delonix regia
The malinche. A wide umbrella of a tree that turns scarlet in the dry season, a dome of red flowers over a spread of shade.
Golden shower tree
Cassia fistula
The lluvia de oro. Long hanging chains of yellow flowers like a waterfall of gold, on a tree that flowers when everything else is brown.
Golden silk orb-weaver
Trichonephila clavipes
The big yellow-and-black spider in the enormous golden web strung across the path at head height. Alarming to walk into, entirely harmless.
Great kiskadee
Pitangus sulphuratus
Bright yellow belly, black and white striped head, and a call that is its own name shouted from the top of the nearest post.
Green iguana
Iguana iguana
The bigger, greener cousin of the garrobo, at home in trees near water. Males turn orange in the breeding season and look carved from a temple wall.
Green sea turtle
Chelonia mydas
The big calm turtle grazing on algae in the shallows, surfacing for a breath beside your kayak. Common along this coast in the water, rarer on its beaches.
Guanacaste tree
Enterolobium cyclocarpum
The national tree and the one the province is named for. A vast spreading crown over the pasture, and seed pods shaped exactly like a human ear.
Guava
Psidium guajava
The guayaba. A small tree with peeling bark and a fruit whose smell announces it from the next street.
Gumbo-limbo
Bursera simaruba
The indio desnudo, the naked Indian, for the peeling red bark, or the tourist tree, for the same reason. The living fence post of Guanacaste.
Hoffmann's two-toed sloth
Choloepus hoffmanni
The one everybody asks about, and the honest answer for this coast is that you probably will not see one here. Sloths want wet forest, and Coco is the dry side.
Humpback whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Two separate populations pass this coast, one from each hemisphere, which means whales off Papagayo for much of the year and calves in the bays some seasons.
Jabiru
Jabiru mycteria
The tallest flying bird in the Americas, a white stork with a black head and a red collar, standing in the Tempisque wetlands like a small person.
Jocote
Spondias purpurea
The small red or yellow plum-like fruit sold in bags at every junction in the dry season, eaten skin and all. A living fence post that happens to fruit.
King angelfish
Holacanthus passer
The showpiece of the rocky reef: a deep blue-grey fish with a white vertical bar, orange tail and a lit-up electric edge to every fin.
Kinkajou
Potos flavus
The martilla. A golden, big-eyed, long-tailed animal in the fruit trees at night that people mistake for a monkey.
Kissing bug
Triatoma dimidiata
A large dark bug with orange edging that feeds on blood at night and can carry Chagas disease. Rare in modern houses, worth recognising in an old one.
Leafcutter ant
Atta cephalotes
The ant highway across your path, every worker carrying a piece of leaf like a tiny green sail.
Madero negro
Gliricidia sepium
The other living fence post. A fast small tree that covers itself in pink pea flowers on bare branches in the dry season.
Magnificent frigatebird
Fregata magnificens
The black kite shape hanging over the bay without flapping. A two-metre seabird that cannot land on water and steals its dinner from the birds that can.
Mahi-mahi
Coryphaena hippurus
The dorado. Electric blue and gold in the water, grey on the deck within minutes, and the best eating fish that comes off a boat here.
Manchineel
Hippomane mancinella
The manzanillo de playa. A handsome beach tree with sweet-smelling little apples, and one of the most poisonous trees in the world.
Mango
Mangifera indica
The tree that feeds the whole town for two months a year, and that half the animals in this guide are waiting on. Mango season is a public event.
Mantled howler monkey
Alouatta palliata
The sound of Guanacaste. A roar that carries for kilometres from an animal the size of a house cat, mostly at dawn, dusk and before rain.
Nance
Byrsonima crassifolia
A small yellow fruit with a strong smell and a taste people either love or cannot stand, sold in jars of syrup and eaten by the handful.
Nine-banded armadillo
Dasypus novemcinctus
The cusuco. A night digger in a suit of armour you hear rustling in the garden long before you see it, and that will not notice you until you are on top of it.
Noni
Morinda citrifolia
The beach shrub with the knobbly pale fruit that smells like a very old cheese. Sold as a cure-all, eaten by almost nobody, and everywhere along the coast.
Northern tamandua
Tamandua mexicana
The anteater in a black vest. Slow, near-sighted and often on the road at dawn with its nose down, tearing open a termite nest.
Oleander
Nerium oleander
The pink and white flowering hedge along roads and around pools, tough as concrete and poisonous in every part.
Olive ridley sea turtle
Lepidochelys olivacea
The turtle that comes ashore by the hundred thousand at Ostional in one of the great wildlife events anywhere. Solo nesters also nest on beaches near Coco.
Orange-fronted parakeet
Eupsittula canicularis
The small green parrots in shrieking flocks over Coco at dusk. Dozens at a time, low and fast, all talking. This is most of the parrot noise you hear.
Pacific sailfish
Istiophorus platypterus
The fastest fish in the sea, with a sail on its back the size of a door. Released by almost everyone who catches one.
Paper wasp
Polistes species
The wasp building a small grey comb under your eaves, your gate, or the underside of a chair. Not aggressive until the nest is disturbed, and then very much so.
Pink trumpet tree
Tabebuia rosea
The roble de sabana. The yellow trumpet tree's pink cousin, flowering in the same dry months, a whole crown of pale pink on bare branches.
Plumeria
Plumeria species
Frangipani. A stubby, sculptural little tree with fat blunt branches and clusters of waxy flowers that smell like the tropics are supposed to.
Pochote
Pachira quinata
The dry forest tree with a trunk covered in fat conical spikes. Unmistakable, valuable for its timber, and one you learn not to lean against.
Rain tree
Samanea saman
The cenízaro. The widest crown of any tree here, a dome of shade sometimes fifty metres across, under which whole herds of cattle stand out the afternoon.
Red mangrove
Rhizophora mangle
The tree that walks into the sea on stilts. Arching prop roots in the tidal mud, a nursery for every fish on the coast.
Roosterfish
Nematistius pectoralis
The fish this coast is famous for. A tall comb of a dorsal fin cutting the surface as it chases bait into the shallows, and a fight that people fly here for.
Roseate spoonbill
Platalea ajaja
A pink wading bird with a bill shaped like a spoon, sweeping the shallows of the Palo Verde wetlands. Looks like a flamingo that made different choices.
Round stingray
Urobatis halleri
The small flat disc buried in the sand exactly where you are about to put your foot. The reason every local walks into the sea shuffling.
Rufous-naped wren
Campylorhynchus rufinucha
The big chattering wren in the thorny acacia by the road, in a family group, building a nest inside a fortress of ants.
Sago palm
Cycas revoluta
In half the gardens and hotel entrances on the coast, and one of the deadliest plants a dog can eat. Not a palm at all. If you have a dog, know this one.
Scarlet macaw
Ara macao
Red, yellow and blue, a metre long including the tail, and loud enough to hear before you see. Coming back to Guanacaste after decades of absence.
Sea grape
Coccoloba uvifera
The beach tree with big round leathery leaves like dinner plates and clusters of purple fruit that actually taste of grape.
Soursop
Annona muricata
The guanábana. A green fruit the size of a rugby ball covered in soft spines, with white fibrous flesh that makes the best fresco on any menu.
Spectacled caiman
Caiman crocodilus
The crocodile's smaller cousin, in the same ponds and estuaries and often mistaken for one. A bony ridge between the eyes gives it the name.
Spotted eagle ray
Aetobatus narinari
A wide dark wing covered in white spots, gliding along the sand below you with a tail like a whip trailing behind.
Strangler fig
Ficus species
The higuerón. A fig that starts life as a seed in the crown of another tree, sends roots down its trunk, and slowly replaces it.
Tamarind
Tamarindus indica
A big feathery-leaved shade tree with brown pods full of sticky sour-sweet pulp. The tamarindo of the drink, the sauce and the town down the coast.
Teak
Tectona grandis
The plantation tree in straight rows across half of Guanacaste. Huge leaves, sandpaper rough, and timber worth waiting twenty years for.
Turquoise-browed motmot
Eumomota superciliosa
Guanacaste's signature bird. Turquoise and rust, a long tail ending in two bare racquets, and a habit of sitting on fence posts as if posing for you.
Variegated squirrel
Sciurus variegatoides
The squirrel that steals your mangoes. Big, bold, and never the same colour twice, from dark chocolate to rust to pale grey.
White-faced capuchin
Cebus imitator
The clever one. Small, quick, white-shouldered and far more interested in you than a howler is, which is exactly why you should not feed it.
White-nosed coati
Nasua narica
The pizote. A long-nosed raccoon cousin that walks with its ringed tail straight up like a flag, alone if it is a male, in a chattering band if not.
White-tailed deer
Odocoileus virginianus
Costa Rica's national animal, and the same deer you know from a North American backyard. Common in the dry forest, grazing at the edges of pasture at dawn.
White-throated magpie-jay
Calocitta formosa
The urraca. Big, blue and white, a curling crest, a tail longer than its body, and the loudest opinion in any garden it enters.
Whitetip reef shark
Triaenodon obesus
The shark you will actually see diving here: slim, small, resting under ledges by day with the white fin tips giving it away.
Yellow trumpet tree
Handroanthus ochraceus
The corteza amarilla. For a few days in the dry season a bare tree explodes into solid gold, the whole crown one colour.
Yellow-naped parrot
Amazona auropalliata
The green parrot screeching over Coco at dusk. Guanacaste is its stronghold, and it is critically endangered, mostly because people keep taking the chicks.
Yellowfin tuna
Thunnus albacares
Big, fast, and often travelling under a pod of dolphins, which is how the boats find them. The sashimi on your plate in Coco was probably swimming that morning.
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