Plants and animals
Flora (the plants)
Because Costa Rica has so many different climate zones, there are also many types of plants. High in the mountains you will find the páramo, with a vegetation of grass and terse trees. Somewhat lower you will see the cloud forests. Monteverde is one of the best known cloud forests, but also south of San José you will find this special kind of forest. Here you can walk with your head in the clouds all day long! A large part of the green in Costa Rica is tropical forest. You will find it on both coasts. In the northern part you will find tropical dry forests, on the other hand in the southern part you will find the mangrove forests with their roots in the water.
The national flower of Costa Rica is an orchid (Guaria Morada) and the national tree is the Guanacaste (grows in the lowlands up to 900 m high), that has beautiful two-coloured seeds.
Fauna (the animals)
Animal life is very versatile. Below you see some numbers and highlights:
| around 865 species of birds |
Quetzal, motmot, hummingbirds, vultures, toecans, parrots, trogons, and the national bird Yigüirro |
| about 150 species of amphibians | poison dart frogs, big toads |
| about 215 species of reptiles | Snakes, lizards, iguanas, ctenosarus, crocodiles, caimans and of course turtles: leatherback turtle, olive ridley, green turtle etc. |
| more than 240 species of mammals | Sloths, monkeys, coatis, jaguars, agoutis, ant eaters, bats, raccoons |
| at least 35.000 species of insects | Morpho butterflies (spectacular big and blue), leafcutter ants and many many more… |
| sea animals |
Manatees, dolphins, humpback whales, parrotfish and 130 kinds of freshwater fish |
