Reserve, Jan 2006

A local tipped us off to Ecocentro Danaus, a wonderful reserve. It was a good place to see some birds and insects up close.

That is a wasp nest in the background.

In the jungle the ficus trees wrap around taller trees and smother them so that they can get up to the light.

This guy is on his way to becoming a butterfly. The camoflage that the different varieties of butterfly worms have is amazing. Some of the crysilises looked metallic (so they looked like dew drops on the leaves). Some of the caterpillers looked like dead leaf tips. It was hard to spot some of these guys in their natural habitat.

The Blue Jeans Dart Frog is as small as your pinky finger nail. As bright as he is, he is hard to find hiding on the forest floor.

Boat-billed Herons like to hang out in trees when they aren't fishing for tilapia.

Right in the center of the background shot is a sloth. They don't move around too much, so all we got was a shot of his butt! The inset is a Green Iguana pretty high up in a tree.

Here's another sloth butt! Actually you can see the whole back and arms on this shy guy. The birds in the upper left are Passerinis's Tanagers. The bird on the platform is a Fiery-billed Aracari.

You have to be careful what you touch in the jungle. A lot of the plants have thorns on the trunks or barbs on the edge of leaves.

Click here for Playa Grande, Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, Volcan Arenal, Pacuare River Tour, or to go back to the main nature page.

©2001-2004 Wild Woman Design, LLC
858-720-1484 • karinw@WildWomanDesign.com