Over the last few years, I’ve worked my way up to the point where I have enough camera traps monitoring little patches of Costa Rica’s wild places where I’m constantly collecting interesting tidbits of information. Most of the time these interesting items aren’t enough to write an entire article about, but if I smoosh a few together, I’ve got something interesting to share.
Sit with a Margay
Costa Rica is home to six species of wild felines. I’ve had the good fortune of recording five of those six (I’m coming for you oncilla!). Of those five, the one I’ve recorded the least frequently is the margay. Margays resemble jaguars but they’re the size of your housecat. They range throughout much of the country, but they seem to be generally rarer within their range than some of the other cat species. With that in mind, picture how delighted I was when I reviewed a camera in Nicoya recently and found that a male margay had decided to spend twenty minutes sitting, perfectly framed, in front of the camera. He sat along a river’s edge using his adorable little ears to listen for movement in the night. Check out the video below.
Puma Love is in the Air
Speaking of the five species of cats I’ve recorded, I have managed to record juveniles of four of those species together with a female. The only baby cat I haven’t recorded yet has been a puma. And guess what!? I still haven’t. But I may have at least recorded a prelude to recording a baby puma. A couple of cameras in a protected area in Guanacaste recently recorded a big male puma diligently following a few steps behind a female over the span of a few days. I’m assuming the male is putting in the proper work to woo the female, so hopefully I’ll be recording that female with a juvenile or two in tow in the next few months. Check out the pair of pumas in the video below.
Otter Log
Deep in a forest in Guanacaste there is a crystal clear, slow moving, stream of deep water flowing between towering trees with a log that juts out from one bank, nearly reaching the other. At some point, I found this log and ventured out onto it to investigate if it would be a good place for a camera trap. My investigation turned up a pile of poop in the center of the log that appeared to be made almost entirely of fish scales. Knowing the area was home to neotropical river otters, I decided to deploy a camera and hope for the best. The results have turned out pretty well. Otters don’t visit the log frequently, but when they do, I record some pretty awesome videos. Some of the best examples are in the video below.
About the Author
Vincent Losasso, founder of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring, is a biologist who works with camera traps throughout Costa Rica
