(soft music)
On the bridge between North and South America,
lies one of the most diverse ecosystems of its size
on the planet.
Its biodiversity is unparalleled
and its beauty is unmatched.
Costa Rica is truly a bastion for wildlife
like no other.
(dramatic music)
Hi, I'm Danielle Dufault and you're watching Animalogic.
(soft music)
(birds chirping)
Today, we are in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica.
This park is in the middle of one of the most
biologically intense rainforests in the world.
(soft music)
Within a space of about 10 meters,
you might see a crocodile, a bull shark,
a spider monkey, and a kingfisher.
Corcovado is one of the most remote rainforests
in Central America.
You can only get here by boat or by small plane
and the only roads are the ones built by leafcutter ants.
The perkiest residents of the park
are the coatimundis.
With their tails pointed directly upwards,
coatis are easy to spot off in the distance.
Unlike their cousins the raccoons,
they are diurnal and spend their days out and about,
scrounging for food.
They use their long and flexible nose to poke around
little rocks in search of fruit, grubs,
and other insects.
(animal crying)
Deeper in the jungle live the largest land mammals
in Central and South America, the tapir.
(African music)
Measuring up to two and a half meters long
and weighing up to 300 kilograms,
tapirs are true giants.
Their nose and upper lip combine into a mini-trunk
that functions much like an elephant's trunk.
They have incredibly powerful jaws
and if they bit you, they might take your arm off.
If you're thinking that they look like they belong
in an Ice Age movie, it's because they do.
Tapirs are one of the most primitive, large mammals
in the world and have remained
unchanged for roughly 20 million years.
If we're not careful,
they won't make it the next 20 million.
Endangered, there are less than 6,000
Baird's tapirs left in the wild.
(soft music)
Tapirs can eat up to 35 kilograms of food a day
and because of this, they are a critical species
for spreading seeds throughout the jungle.
Tapirs spend their mornings soaking in mud baths,
often with several companions like the basilisk lizard
but life for a tapir isn't always so relaxing.
While being so large means that they have
very few predators, their main predators happen to be
the second largest land mammal in South and Central America.
The jaguar.
(dramatic music)
Hoping to catch the tapir in its morning mud bath,
the jaguar silently approaches.
But it's not silent enough.
The tapir will live to soak another day.
Up in the trees, the faces of Corcovado
are entirely different.
Perhaps the most charismatic of all Corcovado residents
are the monkeys.
Capuchin, howler, squirrel monkeys all live here
in the tree canopy.
The second largest of these are the spider monkeys.
Like many New World monkeys,
they have prehensile tails which are very helpful
for getting around.
Especially with a newborn in toe.
Spider monkeys get their name from their long and lanky
limbs which may make them look like angrily teenagers
but they make swinging through the trees a breeze
even without opposable thumbs.
(monkey crying)
The common ancestor to all of these New World monkeys
came here from Africa millions of years ago
but nobody knows for sure how.
The most accepted theory is that they were transported here
on natural rafts after a massive flooding event in Africa.
Despite their strong numbers in the Osa Peninsula,
spider monkeys are endangered and every day
face increasing threats from deforestation and hunting.
Spider monkeys spend their days in large groups,
forging for fruits in the treetops.
Their numbers help deter their arboreal predators
like the margay.
(soft music)
Margays are incredibly skilled climbers
and primarily hunt in the tree canopy.
But for the right meal,
they will make their way to the jungle floor.
In this case, a rat.
(rat squealing)
(dramatic music)
She puts up a fight.
(rat squealing)
But, in the end, is no match for the margay.
Monkeys aren't the only ones who find safety
in the treetops.
(upbeat funky music)
Tamanduas are as comfortable in the tree canopy
as they are on the ground.
They are a type of anteater and spend their days
looking for ants above and below.
They are excellent climbers.
They have a long prehensile tail which is hairless
on the bottom, essentially acting like
an extra hand to grab branches with.
Though sometimes it's easier to get down
just by sliding.
They have a long sticky tongue
which they use to pick up ants and termites.
Sometimes over 9,000 in a single day.
Their coat is thick and coarse
and it helps keep ants, termites, and other insects at bay.
There's nothing worse than flies biting you
while you're trying to nap.
Insects or no, his nap is about to be interrupted.
(dramatic music)
A puma lies in wait at the base of the tree.
But the tamandua has a trick up his sleeve.
When threatened, as a last resort, tamandua will omit
a horrible smell.
(dramatic music)
It works and the puma skulks off.
(dramatic music)
Closer to the ground, the jungles of Costa Rica
are ruled by a wide variety of amphibians and reptiles
but to find them, we'll have to look very closely.
Crocodiles, caiman, tree frogs, basilisk lizards,
iguanas, and many others call this jungle home.
(upbeat music)
The wildlife found here is denser than any other place
on the planet and it's a fairly recent mix.
Four million years ago during the
Great South American Exchange, the North and South Americas
bridged which created a great exchange of fauna
from the North to the South and the South to the North.
This Great American Biotic Interchange
saw North American species like cougars, tapirs,
and deer cross over into South America.
While South American species like armadillos,
tamanduas, and poison dart frogs made their way
into Central and North America.
The North American species were much better off
'cause many of the species coming from the South
were not able to compete with animals in the North
occupying similar niches and were unable to diversify
to adapt to this change in territory and climate.
(soft music)
The poison dart frog, for example, only made it as far North
as Central America.
Unlike many other species of frog,
poison darts make no effort at all to blend in
and they exhibit some of the most brilliant colors
in the animal world.
This is called aposematism.
A display of bright colors to warn predators
that they're poisonous and they're quite poisonous.
The golden poison frog has enough poison
to kill 10 adult men.
But the interesting thing is, they don't make their poison.
It comes entirely from their diet.
Likely from eating fire ants and other insects which,
themselves, ingest plant poisons.
Poison darts share the jungle with possibly the most
iconic frog in the world.
(dramatic music)
The red-eyed tree frog.
Unlike poison darts, red-eyed tree frogs aren't poisonous
despite their bright coloring.
When targeted by a predator,
they'll flash their bright red eyes at their attacker.
This may give the predator some pause,
allowing the frog to jump away.
This strategy is called startle coloration.
Their eyes sit very high up on their heads
and are quite huge and bulging.
This gives them near 360 degree vision.
But they have an extra use.
They help with swallowing.
Red-eyed tree frogs snag prey with their quick fire tongues
and then swallow them whole.
To help push their prey down their throat,
their eyes recede, giving their meal an extra push
into their bellies.
(soft music)
(dramatic music)
Costa Rica is home to a wide variety of frogs
and one of their local endemic residents
is the beautiful blue-sided tree frog.
Endangered, they've seen a population decline
of 50% since the early 1990s.
(dramatic music)
Their biggest threats are coming from competing
invasive fish, The International Pet Trade, and a fungal
disease that prevents them from being able to breathe.
Fortunately, due to conservation efforts in Costa Rica,
their populations are currently stable.
(dramatic music)
Tree frogs find themselves prey
to a lot of different predators.
A vine snake spots the tree frog from above.
The tree frog is yet unaware.
(wildlife chirping)
The snake strikes.
But she's too loud.
The tree frog hears her coming and jumps.
Though their jumps don't always go so well.
Lucky for the vine snake,
their next meal is always right around the corner.
(upbeat music)
Vine snakes aren't the only predators slithering
through the jungles of Central America.
Much larger and much deadlier, the boa constrictor
lies in wait in the dark underbrush for its next meal.
Something a bit bigger than a tree frog,
a black spiny-tailed iguana.
These lizards live in colonies dominated by a large male.
They spend their days basking in the sunlight,
always keeping an eye out for hawks on the hunt.
But it's not a hawk that's eyeing this iguana.
Sensing the boa, the iguana asserts its dominance
by showing off its dewlap.
The boa is unperturbed.
The iguana tries to lose the boa in the trees
but isn't quick enough.
I'll be right here.
Right on the water, right here?
But such is life in the jungle.
(upbeat music)
Costa Rica is home to an amazing variety of wildlife
but perhaps none are more beautiful than the birds.
Central and South America have a disproportionately
large number of avian species.
3,500 out of 10,000 avian species live here.
In Costa Rica alone, you can find
920 different species of bird.
That's 10% of the entire world's bird life
found in a country smaller than West Virginia.
Here in Corcovado, you can see birds such as toucans,
macaws, and curassow.
Toucans are probably the most iconic
of the country's avian residents.
Their bills can be four times the size of their head
and often as long as their bodies.
(toucan cawing)
These long colorful bills are not only an effective way
to attract mates, but they use them to
intimidate other birds, grab fruit at the end of branches
too weak to support their body weight,
and to dig meals out of small crevasses.
(upbeat playful music)
They have incredible control over their beaks
and during mating, they will pass fruit
to one another as a form of courtship.
Or they'll tap their long bills together.
Unfortunately, toucans probably don't follow their noses
all that much.
As like most birds, they have a very poor sense of smell.
Yellow throated toucans are the largest of the toucans
found in Costa Rica and are known to be bullies.
These two aracaris are enjoying a meal
when the toucan stops by.
(dramatic music)
Down on the jungle floors, struts the most stylish bird
of Costa Rica, the great curassow.
Standing up to 91 centimeters tall,
these dapper crosses rock a Mohawk of curled feathers.
They also have bright yellow bills and long tails
to attract potential mates.
Vulnerable, great curassows face increasing threats
every day from deforestation and from being hunted for food.
Their relatives, the crested guans,
are usually found in the trees
but this one stalks the jungle floor
in search of fallen fruit and insects.
Pale-billed woodpeckers are the largest of the eight
woodpeckers found in the Osa Peninsula.
And they can be found knocking into trees
in search of the larvae of woodboring beetles.
(crickets chirping)
(dramatic music)
Down by the shore, herons have to share their territory
not only with kingfishers but with crocodiles.
(dramatic music)
The little blue heron spends its days stalking small fish
and amphibians in the shallows.
His patience pays off.
(dramatic music)
Kingfishers employ a similar strategy
but instead of standing in the water,
they have mastered the dive.
This Amazon Kingfisher perches and waits.
He sees a fish and dives.
He takes into account the refraction
of the light in the water and is successful.
The fish struggles but a few smacks take care of that.
(birds chirping)
(upbeat music)
(birds chirping)
The jungles of Costa Rica are home to a variety of parrots.
And perhaps the most talkative are the yellow-naped parrots.
(wildlife chattering)
These parrots are particularly famous
for their amazing ability to talk
and are often kept as pets.
(parrot chirping)
(speaking foreign language)
As a result, they can make some pretty creepy sounds.
(parrot cawing)
Possibly the most beautiful bird in all of Central America
is also one of its most elusive.
The resplendent quetzal.
These beautiful birds go to extremes during courtship.
The male will grow gorgeous twin tail feathers
that can be up to a meter long.
Then he will hollow out a den in a rotten tree,
keeping it as clean as possible for the hopes of attracting
his chosen mate.
Only time will tell if she agrees to his offer.
(dramatic music)
Rivaling the quetzal for its beauty
are Costa Rica's hummingbirds.
There are dozens of species of hummingbird
found in Costa Rica and they come in a wide variety of sizes
and colors.
Many are even iridescent.
(dramatic music)
Hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 200 times a second
and because of this, they can hover in place
and they're the only bird that can fly backwards.
(dramatic music)
They are known as nectarivores as their diet
is made up almost entirely of plant nectar.
Their hovering allows them to easily collect this nectar,
especially from flowers that are too small to support
their body weight.
Their extreme control of their body movement
is also very helpful when avoiding other hummingbirds
gathered at a single flower.
It's estimated that hummingbirds visit 20 flowers a minute.
In order to eat all of this nectar, they have super long
split tongues which are about double
the length of their bills.
Hummingbirds feed every 10 to 15 minutes
and in a day, they will consume
half their body weight in sugar.
Their hearts beat around 1,000 times per minute
and due to their high metabolism, if a hummingbird
went without food for a few hours, they would die.
To make it through the night,
they enter a hibernation-like state called torpor
during which their metabolism is lowered significantly
and they don't need as much energy to keep going.
Further north, along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica,
lies a park filled with a whole host of wildlife.
Sloths, monkeys, caiman, land crabs, and tourists.
Manuel Antonio National Park.
Home to 109 species of mammals, 184 species of birds,
and some of the most pristine beaches in Central America,
this National Park sees a lot of activity
from both animals and tourists.
(dramatic music)
The stars of the park are the sloths.
The three-toed sloth is the slow, grinning species
that relies solely on vegetation to survive.
Aha, there you are.
(soft music)
The three-toed sloth is the slowest mammal in the world.
They spend so much of their lives not moving
that algae grows on their coats.
This tints their coat green, providing them with camouflage
against the green tree canopy that they call home.
There are many differences between two and three-toed sloths
but as their name suggests, two-toed sloths have two claws
on their forelimbs and three toes on their hind limbs.
The two-toed sloth can be surprisingly agile
and can zip around quickly if necessary,
though they still spend most of their time
just slothing around.
(upbeat music)
Though the three-toed sloth may smile more,
they're both famous for constantly looking
as high as a kite.
♪ Chill out, stay cool, relax ♪
♪ Let go ♪
♪ Oh, let go, let go ♪
♪ Chill out, stay cool, relax ♪
♪ Let go ♪
(soft music)
Sloths have very long limbs, allowing them to easily
grab tree trunks and branches while climbing.
They use their incredibly long claws
to dig into the bark while they climb.
They are so good at hanging onto branches,
often times when they die,
they'll remain hanging from the trees.
But it's not just their claws,
sloths have highly specialized retractor muscles
which allow them to hang onto trees
at increasingly difficult positions with ease.
Though they have very little muscle mass.
About 30% less than what most mammals have.
Sloths spend the majority of their lives in the trees
and only really climb down when they need to poop
which they strangely only have to do about once a week.
On the ground, sloths lose any agility
they had in the trees.
In order to get around, they must pull themselves forward
with their fore and hind limbs.
None of their limbs can support their body weight
and because of this they are classified as four armed
rather than four-legged animals.
Though in water, where they don't need to support
their own weight, they are quite adept swimmers.
It's just getting out that proves difficult.
Sloths share the jungle with a whole host of other wildlife.
Three species of monkey live here.
The howler monkey occupies the upper canopy
while the capuchin and squirrel monkeys
live a little lower down.
(dramatic music)
Howler monkeys...
(monkey howling)
Howler...
(monkey howling)
Howl, howl, howler.
(monkey howling)
(groaning)
(monkey howling)
Howler monkeys sound like they're the ultimate terror
in the jungle and that's the idea.
(monkey howling)
Yet, in reality, this is far from the case.
While howler monkeys are the largest and surliest
of the New World monkeys,
they aren't particularly confrontational and their loud,
scary call is meant as a warning
to other monkeys to stay out.
(monkey howling)
Males are the loudest and have large specialized throats
which contain a large hyoid bone.
This helps boost their bark-like call.
(monkey howling)
Being constantly observed by tourists,
howlers have developed an interesting strategy
for keeping unwanted humans at bay.
They pee on them.
If you're near a howler monkey,
it's probably best not to stand directly under them
unless you don't mind getting wet.
Oh, this one's got a baby.
Capuchins have developed a special relationship with humans
and have learned that tourists can be an excellent
source of food.
They have lost their fear of people
and are often found raiding unsuspecting
beach goers bags for food.
This can be harmful for monkeys because processed foods
can be either toxic or indigestible for them.
(funky music)
When there aren't any tourists around to feed them,
capuchins are excellent foragers.
Unlike many other New World monkeys,
capuchins spend a lot of time on the ground
looking for food and they're quite resourceful.
They'll strip bark, they'll use sticks as tools,
and they'll even use rocks to break open hard fruit.
They even have a few tricks up their sleeves
for finding water.
Capuchins are considered to be one of the smartest
New World monkeys and they've learned to rub
different plants on themselves to keep ticks at bay
and possibly even to treat inflammation.
White-headed capuchins live in large troops.
A big part of coming-of-age for juvenilis is playing,
chasing, and wrestling and oh do they play.
(upbeat playful music)
At Manuel Antonio National Park, a lot of that play
involves stealing things from tourists
and then chasing each other for the stolen goods.
Of course they tell us not to bring chips in for a reason.
(dramatic music)
Other animals have learned to do the same.
coatis and raccoons have become very bold
and can be seen patrolling the beaches in search of snacks.
(dramatic music)
(chattering)
(dramatic music)
These raids really show the limits of our bonds
with our fellow man 'cause instead of stopping
any of these animals, people tend to prefer
getting cute pictures for Instagram.
I mean, it makes sense.
(soft music)
Costa Rica is home to thousands of different species,
many of which are endangered.
Despite the surge of deforestation in Central America,
over the past 20 years, Costa Rica has actually seen
an increase in forest cover across the country.
The country has set aside 25% of their land
as Wildlife Sanctuaries and National Parks.
Costa Ricans are very proud of their wildlife
and go to great efforts to conserve it.
Conservation centers like Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary
and La Paz Waterfall Gardens take in injured wildlife
and animals rescued from the Exotic Pet Trade.
Hi, sweetie.
(chuckling)
This is maximum sloth effort.
Their goal is to eventually release them
back into the wild but some animals are too injured
or too use to humans to ever return.
(soft music)
Costa Rica remains a bastion for wildlife,
providing hope for the future of these endangered species
and an inspiration to the rest of us
showing that coexisting with nature is possible.
(inspirational music)