The Wildlife of Costa Rica: A Field Guide (Zona Tropical Publications)

Price: $29.95 - $17.76
(as of Sep 13, 2026 22:43:31 UTC – Details)

“Featuring a good selection of common and/or interesting species, The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the most authoritative and most useful general guide to its subject. It will attract every ecotourist visiting Costa Rica. This dream team knows its stuff, and the illustrations are stunning.”―Cagan H. Sekercioglu, Stanford University

This full-color field guide is an indispensable companion to the most popular neotropical ecotourism destination: Costa Rica. Featuring all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods that one is likely to see on a trip to the rainforest (as well as those secretive creatures such as the jaguar that are difficult to glimpse), The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the guide to have when encountering trogons, tapirs, and tarantulas.

In addition to providing details for identifying animals along with interesting facts about their natural history, this guide offers tips for seeing them in the wild. Costa Rica, a peaceful nation with many and diverse animal species, is one of the best places in the world for wildlife watching and nature study. It has an excellent system of national parks and reserves, a wide choice of ecolodges, and many professionally trained tourist guides. It is possible to leave the capital city of San José and, just a few hours later, visit a high-elevation cloud forest, dense rainforest, savanna-like plain, or coastal habitat, each with a unique collection of animal species.

This new lightweight field guide provides nature enthusiasts visiting Costa Rica with the best introduction to the country’s amazing diversity of wildlife.

It is the first general field guide to Costa Rica to combine the most sought-after features:

•treatment of all major phyla in the country
•coverage of the animals most likely and most desirable to be seen
•more than 600 detailed illustrations integrated with the text (the preferred method of animal identification in the wild)
•full species accounts including ID points, range and habitat, size, and behaviors
•a wealth of natural history information, including more than 20 photographic natural history features
•tips for seeing animals

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Comstock Publishing Associates
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 22, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801476100
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801476105
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #92,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #18 in Costa Rica Travel Guides #21 in Biology of Reptiles & Amphibians #22 in General Central America Travel Guides
Customer Reviews: 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (292) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers find this field guide informative and comprehensive, covering many kinds of wildlife and presenting accurate information carefully. The guide is portable and indispensable during trips to Costa Rica, with good illustrations and content that helps with identification.