herping trip to costa rica

For as long as I can remember, tropical rainforests have always fascinated me. They are the most biodiverse of all ecosystems, true sanctuaries for the animal and plant wildlife. In 2018 I was presented with my first opportunity to go outside my natal Spain on a trip focused on searching, observe and photograph wild animals. On autumn 2017 I met my friend Max Benito, who told me about a great volunteering he did on that last summer in Costa Rica, and how amazing the amphibian and reptile diversity of this country was. So he proposed me to accompany him to this central american country on summer 2018, and as you imagine I can't refuse. As an european and nature enthusiastic, costa rican biodiversity impressed me since I begin to inform me about: 180 amphibian species, more than 130 snakes, caymans, caecillians, hummingbirds... And most importantly, my first encounter with a tropical primary forest, a long dream to me.

We planned the trip for the entire July of 2018. As we both were students that time, with not so much money, we'll move on the country by bus. We decided to dedicate the first half of the trip for the volunteering with sea turtles, and the other 15 days for visiting potential herping places around the country. Finally, Max's cousin, Rodri, joined us on this adventure. He's not as herper as us, but was a great complement to the team at many moments of the trip. With the team full, we did a careful planning and the adventure started!

Costa Rica power team: Luis Albero, Max Benito and Rodrigo Calvo

We planned our trip so that the flights were as cheap as possible, and that means long stops for turning planes. We decided to take the best of it and carefully select our scales on places with herping potential. On our way from Barcelona to Costa Rica, the flight had a long scale of 17h in Miami, a great opportunity for us to visit one of the best places to look for wildlife on the U.S.A., the Florida Everglades. So we rent a car for one day (not so expensive) and despite not having slept much during the flight, the desire to look for reptiles was bigger and we headed to the Everglades.

We decided to visit not the main Everglades National Park, but Big Cypress preserve, located just north of the park and with a similar ecosystem and herping possibilities. We did that because we heard that there were big restrictions for herping on the national park, and the rangers can be quite tough if they see you with a snake hook, for example. In our way to the hearth of the swamp, we begin to see the first reptile species: the introduced green iguana (Iguana iguana), our first american alligators (Alligator missisipiensis) and some roadkill snakes. We found a lot of roadkill herps that night, from snakes (Nerodia sp., Panterophis sp.) to turtles, frogs and even an alligator. 

The night was a whirlwind of emotions. In our first stop to eat some american traditional food (hamburguer and chips from a known fast food restaurant) we could see our first up close alligators and a slider turtle (Pseudemys nelsoni). My first wild crocodylian ever! When we finished our meal, I realised that I couldn't find the car keys. I was completely sure that I've putted it in my pocket, but simply they weren't there. After one of the longest hours in our lifes, already convinced that we would miss the flight and the entire trip, Rodri found the keys behind some rocks on a channel shore which we had approached for seeing an alligator. They had fallen out of my pocket! We were lucky that they didn't fall on the water... Best go with deep pockets to the wild, guys...

Not my best photograph, but my first wild crocodylian ever, american alligator (Alligator missisipiensis)

After some time to recover the "herping mode", we took the car and started the roadcruising on the cypress swamps. Herps were slowly showing themselves, like some anoles (Anolis sp.), more slider turtles, or alligators, whose impressive roars filled the swamp. We were surprised when we found a small newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) on the swamp shore in a place full of carnivore fishes, crayfishes, turtles and alligators. In Europe is impossible to find newts in waters like that... Close to the sunset we found our first snake, a garter snake (Thammophis sirtalis). My first snake outside Spain.  

Already at night, there seemed that some strong storms were forming on other parts of the swamp, as we started seeing lightning and thunders on the horizon. However, we didn't receive a single raindrop on us, but as we arrive to other roads where it had rained hard moments before, we started to see a high amphibian activity. We began with a lonely southern toad (Anaxyrus terrestris), on the road. In a parking lot, lots of frogs of different species were calling on the pure pavement. Even we saw catfishes prowling on land! That kind of weather was good for amphibians, but not very good for snakes, and we feel that our possibilities of seeing some of the iconic floridan species, like the diamondback rattlesnake, the coral snake or the cottonmouth were going down. Fortunately, after some more roadcruising and lots of snake-looking sticks (we called them "stickophis") we encounter a nice looking juvenile cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus). My first pitviper ever, and was very calm during the photo session. 

The night ended with an alleged loss of my glasses, which took us a little time until I found them. The last wildlife highlight of the night was a close encounter with a massive adult alligator, which we saw crossing the road in front of our car. At first I thought it was an american black bear! When we jump down of the car, the big crocodylian don't seemed to be very afraid, and remained on its ground hissing loudly. An unforgettable experience! We ended with a striped mud turtle (Kinosternon baurii), which we took off the road. A great night for beginning our trip!

The star of the night. Florida cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti). 

Big gator (Alligator missisipiensis)

Laguna Urpiano is a private wildlife refuge located on the caribbean coast of Costa Rica, south of the famous Tortuguero National Park. This place is dedicated primarily to the protection of one truly iconic species: the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), world's biggest turtle and without doubt one of the most impressive herps of the planet. They accept volunteers from all over the world to help working with the turtles, and thus there we met a great group of young people interested in this animals and their conservation.

The daily routine in the refuge comprises some morning work doing things like taking care of the banana plantations, do labours of reforesting of the near forest or cleaning. That was the worst part of the trip for me, as I'm not such a big fan of working during my vacation, at least without being paid (actually it was us who had to pay for staying there). The best part, however, came at the nights when we did the beach patrols in search for female turtles arriving to lay their eggs. We saw a total of seven or eight adult leatherbacks ovipositing during our two weeks there. Not allowed to take photos for not disturbing them, but of course an unforgivable experience to see those prehistoric looking giants so close! The turtle eggs were collected in situ and translated to a guarded patch on the beach, as illegal poaching is still a big problem for turtles there. We also have lots of nests hatching during our stage, being able to see (and measure) lots of baby leatherbacks. 

Apart from working, we had some free time to go herping on the nearby jungle. This of course is not the best place to look for snakes and frogs on Costa Rica, and it was hard for us to encounter animals, with an average of one or none snake and frog per night. We were also able to observe, however, lots of cool tropical bugs so the nights were not boring. Most of the time we went herping late on the night, after the turtle work, when the animal activity had surely weaken. Our first snake of the trip was a cool slender Imantodes cenchoa, found our first day there. On our free time during the day, we also were able to observe some of the iconic costa rican species, like the basilisk lizards, green iguanas, anoles, strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) and teiid lizards. Some nights we also were able to see spectacled caimans (Caiman crocodilus) very close, and also some big american crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) from the boat, but no photos of these.   

Hatching leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea)

Spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus)

One the third day I had the great idea of swimming on the sea with my glasses, so a silly wave took them forever to the deeps of the caribbean sea. As I had to spend the rest of the trip without glasses (only contact lenses), that prevented me many times to go looking for wildlife, especially during the day. On the night I put on my contact lenses, I ended the trip with some eye damage but a lesson for the next, always wear two glasses! Rain was very frequent and strong during all of our time there, but in the middle of our stage, we had a big tropical storm that hitted very strongly with an enormous amount of water. Water levels on the refuge grow for almost one meter, and lots of three trunks (some of them really big) and other debris were carried to the beach. No more turtles after that and we spend those days cleaning the beach. The good part is that inside one trunk we found one of the coolest herps of the entire trip: a purple caecilian (Gymnopis multiplicata), also my first seen caecilian. 

On the remaining days there we found other cool herps as the first red eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas), a very iconic species, along with some other less colorful but also cool frogs. We also found some more snakes, like three bird snakes (Phyrononax poecilonotus), which seems common in the area, and our first encounter with the infamous terciopelo (Bothrops asper), an individual which showed himself very close to the place where we had our bedrooms. We also spotted some mammals, like monkeys, sloths and opossums. One day Max surprisingly catch a big snapping turtle (Chelydra acutirostris), on the inundated forest, also another very cool find. Some other turtle species were found on the beach, carried by the storm.

Purple caecilian (Gymnopis multiplicata)

Red eyed leaf frog (Agalychnis callidryas), the most iconic frog on the world

After finished in Laguna Urpiano, we really wanted to do some serious herping on a real jungle. Our next destination couldn't be much better for that. I think that the C.R.A.R.C. is a must for any herper going to Costa Rica. This private reserve owned by american biologist Brian Kubicki and his wife Aura hosts an amazing amphibian diversity, with some species truly being among the cooler frogs in the world. Among 60 amphibian species have been recorded here by Brian, some of them are rare and endangered species which are here due to reintroduction efforts. The price of 60$ per night must seemed a little high, but if you can afford it I think it really worths the visit. We stayed there for three nights.

After a long bus drive, we meet up with Brian and arrived at the fantastic hostage on the reserve, surely the best accomodation we had on the entire trip. Brian was very kind and told us the best parts of his land to see the amphibian species we wanted to see the most. He also offers the possibility to do guided tours with him, but as we didn't have so much money we prefered to explore the forest by ourselves. The conditions on the first night appeared excellent with a little rain, no wind and good temperature, so we took our flashlights and rain boots and started exploring this primary forest. This time Rodri was tired and decided to stay on the house...

As soon as we started the night walk, we realized the great amphibian populations this place hosts, as we begin to see lots of red eyed tree frogs (in Urpiano we saw only one on 15 days). We also started to spot some new and cool species, like the brilliant forest frog (Lithobates warszewitschii), the clown frog (Dendropsophus ebraccatus) or the amazing gliding leaf frog (Agalychnis spurrelli), the greatest treefrog of Costa Rica. This latter frogs were very active, calling and going to the ponds for breeding; we saw among 100 of these that night. As soon as I approached the first pond, I found another of the top herps of the trip, a little arboreal salamander (Bolitoglossa striatula) on a fern. 

As the night progressed, we found other top species, as a couple lemur leaf frogs (Agalychnis lemur), a very endangered species that can be only found in little places of Costa Rica and Panama. On the third pond (this place has lots of ponds) I almost stepped on a massive 1.5m female terciopelo (Bothrops asper), which was in ambush position near the pond. It's incredible how this snakes can go so unnoticed on the forest floor, they are true biological landmines. We stayed for some minutes taking photos with the very gentle viper (we even named it "Manola"). 

The latter part of the night we toured some streams in search for glass frogs, realizing how difficult to find this little frogs can be. They are so tiny, it's difficult to locate them for their eyeshine and can be in difficult places like branches meters above rocky streams. Finally we found our first species, a dwarf glass frog (Teratohyla spinosa). 

Lemur leaf frog (Agalychnis lemur)

Big female terciopelo (Bothrops asper), in situ

We ended the first night around 4:30AM, when we started notice that the herp activity was getting lower. As you can imagine, we spent almost all the morning resting, but we took some time during the day for looking for the three species of poison dart frogs on the reserve: the strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio), with more blue than their coastal relatives, the lovely poison frog (Phyllobates lugubris) and the amazing green and black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus). We also spent some time chatting with Brian, always a pleasure to talk to people so knowledgeable on herpetology. He also gave us some tips for searching for glassfrogs that night. As an extra, we spotted two nice rainbow-billed toucans. 

That night can be define as "the snake night". We found seven different snakes of five species, our top record on the hole trip. The first was a very cool tree boa (Corallus annulatus), our only boa of the trip. The amphibian activity was lower than on the previous night, but we found some new and cool species, the top one was also for me the top amphibian of the trip, two nice splendid leaf frogs (Cruziohyla silviae). We also found a jumping leaf frog (Agalychnis saltator), the last of the five phyllomedusid frogs of the preserve. Other finds were some stream-related frogs, as the red eyed stream frog (Duellmanohyla rufioculis) and Palmer's treefrog (Hyloscirtus palmeri). The glassfrogs continue to elude us, as we only found a couple dwarf glass frogs and a supposed ghost glass frog which rapidly jump away. 

Splendid leaf frog (Cruziohyla silviae)

The following day we had a little incident when a big bullet ant visit us in the kitchen. Their stings have a reputations of being very nasty, so we carefully put her on a pot with a thick glove (it started stinging and biting the glove aggressively) and bring her back to the jungle where we also found a couple more. That last night Brian offer us to go with him to the deepest part of the reserve, a nice piece of old primary forest where we might be able to find the glass frogs that were eluding us the previous night. 

We then started to follow Brian and his neighbour into the forest via a machete-made track. That part of the C.R.A.R.C. was truly impressive, with trees like towers with no apparent end. In spite of the moderate wind, the environment on the forest floor was completely calm. Soon we begin to spot some new frog species, and more dwarf glass frogs. Then, Brian spotted another species of glass frog for us, the pretty cascade glass frog (Sachatamia albomaculata). Frog activity was not very high, probably due to the wind, but then I spotted a suspicious eyeshine near a stream... There it was, one of our highlights for this trip, the amazing ghost glass frog (Sachatamia ilex)! The eyes of this frog are truly impressive. We didn't find so much more that night, but learned a lot from Brian's deep knowledge of the rainforest and its amphibians. Thanks a lot for the walk Brian!

When we arrived at the guesthouse, we found another cool herp, Max's personal favourite. A night lizard (Lepidophyma flavimaculatum) was refugiated on the electricity facility of the house. A prehistoric looking lizard with a strong bite. 

Ghost glass frog (Sachatamia ilex), in situ

Amplecting dwarf glass frogs (Teratohyla spinosa), in situ

After leaving the C.R.A.R.C. our next destination was Cahuita, in the southern caribbean coast. Of course there are better herping places on the country, but as we didn't have money for booking only private jungle reserves (which are the best places), then decided to try on this coastal park, famous for its high density of eyelash vipers, another of our most wanted species. As a tourist place it was not so difficult to find a good hostel for less than 10$ per night. We had also planned to do some snorkeling on the coral reefs, but due to the past tropical storm here it was not possible, as the water was still very dirty.

The first day I felt really sick after eating some fried chicken for a street market, so not so much herping. The following days we went daytime to the park, really crowded tourist place. Night herping was not allowed in the park. We tried one night to get in unnoticed, but there were guards on the entrance so that was a fail. Instead, we explored some jungle trails that we found just outside the park, with really good appearance. We had to do all by walking at night from the village to the jungle, going on the edge of the main road. Nothing bad happend to us, but a friend who went there after get assaulted by four men with machetes who take all his possessions so be very careful if you walk alone at night here. Having a car would have been better I think. 

Finally we could find one nice golden eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) on the day near the park entrance, thanks to the guards. Herp activity was low at night, it could be due to the moderately full moon or to the past storm. At night the best finds were a granular glass frog (Cochranella granulosa) in a random stream, which was down enough to catch it for photos. That was the only one we saw in the trip, in spite of hearing them and seeing their eggs in other places. We also found some more cat eyed and blunt headed snakes, and a new species, the cloudy slug eater (Sibon nebulatus). 

Eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii)

Apart from the C.R.A.R.C. this was the other private preserve we visited, in this case a indigenous territory, inhabited by the Bribri people, and among them we met Sebastián, an indigenous leader with a special interest in snakes and their conservation. He hosts some interesting research projects on his land, specially focused on one mighty snake, the bushmaster. This is probably the best place in Costa Rica for finding this elusive snake, however it is not easy to encounter one. For getting here we had to do some jungle walking on muddy tracks, with all our equipment (I stepped down a couple times...). Sebastián lives in a true paradise, a big wood house in the middle of the jungle, he said each log of the house was carried there for 20 men.

Here we realised we have made a big mistake not planning the trip taking account of the moon phases. The full moon on the jungle means zero snake activity, and that's what we had here. We also have strong raining, and even Sebastián told us he was surprised by the low number of snakes we saw on the two nights we were out with him. However, the forest here was very impressive, and if we have the opportunity we truly will came back with better weather conditions.

The only new snake we found was a green vine snake (Oxybelis brevirostris). We also found two more eyelash vipers (one on the top of their observation tower), cloudy slug eater and cat eyed snake. On the streams we found a new glass frog, la Palma glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi), a male guarding his eggs. We found some other frogs, but amphibian activity was not very high. We thank Sebastián for his hospitality and expect to come back someday and find a bushmaster!

Time to move to the Pacific coast! After a night in San José and lots of bus hours, we arrived to a calm valley on the Talamanca mountains, the village of San Gerardo de Dota. This is a famous place for birdwatchers, and I convinced Max for trying some iconic species like que quetzal and some mountain hummingbirds (he is not a great birder as I am). We book a nice wood cabin, with kitchen and even more space that we needed. Even we managed to fish some trouts on the nearby stream (don't tell the cops), which formed a great dinner for the first night. We didn't spot any single frog on the nights there, and perhaps that introduced trouts have the guilt for that...

On our first day we took a taxi (nice taxi guy on the village) to the top of Cerro de la Muerte, the second highest mountain of Costa Rica, at more than 3.400m above sea level. Our plan was to hike all the way down to San Gerardo de Dota, passing through different environments and herping all the way, with a main objective, the Talamanca pit viper (Bothriechis nubestris). However, we only found some herps on the summit puna: alligator lizards (Mesaspis monticola), emerald swift (Sceloporus malachiticus) and the endemic red footed salamander (Bolitoglossa pesrubra). On the way down the cloud forest was impressive but we only saw a squirrel. 

The following day we get up early to see the quetzals, but someone told us to go a bit later than is ideal to see them, so finally we only saw one immature male. A very gorgeous bird after all. On the afternoon we enjoyed the hummingbirds on the feeder that was in our hostage, including one unique leucistic Talamanca hummingbird, and the very cool fiery-throated hummingbirds. Another of my dreams for this trip was seeing my first hummingbirds, and in this place we had very good views of them, they even fly skimming your hair!

Finally we arrive to our last destination, Dominical on the Caribbean coast. Another slightly touristic place full of surfers, but also cheap and tranquil. Here we wanted to see some species that are only found on the Pacific side before going back to Spain. We herp on the nights looking for nearby forest tracks by foot, similar than we did on Cahuita, and the last day we ventured on a private preserve, Hacienda Barú, where we herp all day and all night.

The truth is that we didn't find so many animals. The moon was still very big and the herp activity, thus, very low. We found some Pacific specialities like the black spiny tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura similis), gladiator treefrog (Boana rosenbergii) and some anoles. Our last snake of the trip was a juvenile Oliver's parrot snake (Leptophis aff. nebulosus). We also found some more caimans, turtles and frogs.

On our way back to Spain we had a scale of 23 hours in Charlotte (North Carolina, USA). This place is not the best for herping so we didn't rent a car, instead we went by foot to the backyards of the airport, triying to find some natural places. We found a pond, a stream and some promising places, but the weather was very hot (more than 35ºC). We found a tiny mole kingsnake (Lampropeltis calligaster), under some rubbish, and some common lizards and frogs in the pond. That silly snake managed somehow to escape when Max was taking pictures, so I ended with no photos of it...

This trip was without doubt an unforgettable experience, with some lifetime highlights for me: my first herping trip, first time on tropical rainforest, first time seeing lots of cool animal groups... We also learned a lot during this adventure that surely will help us to improve our next trips, for example, always avoid the full moon! In Costa Rica we had overall much more luck with frogs than with snakes. We saw most if not all of our main frog targets, but there are still some snakes that avoided us, like the boa constrictor, all the other vipers, some big colubrids, etc. We ended with more than 100 reptile and amphibian species in Costa Rica, plus an extra in our scales at the U.S., incredible numbers for european herpers. Most of this species, the less showy, don't have photos taken, and that's another thing to improve for the following trips. In conclusion, the trip was great and I'm sure that we will return to this amazing country to enjoy this colorful biodiversity again. Pura vida!

We thank fellow herpers Enrique Ruiz, Raúl León and Gert Jan Verspui for their useful advice when planning the trip.

Herp species list (Costa Rica only):

REPTILES

Dermochelyidae:

- Dermochelys coriacea

Chelydridae:

- Chelydra acutirostris

Kinosternidae:

- Kinosternon leucostomum

- Kinosternon scorpioides

Emydidae:

- Trachemys emolli

Geoemydidae:

- Rhinoclemmys funerea

Iguanidae:

- Iguana iguana

- Ctenosaura similis

- Basiliscus basiliscus

- Basiliscus vittatus

- Basiliscus plumifrons

- Corytophanes cristatus

Phrynosomatidae:

- Sceloporus malachiticus

Teiidae:

- Ameiva festiva

- Ameiva quadrilineata

Gymnophthalmidae:

- Gymnophthalmus speciosus

Scincidae:

- Marisora alliacea

- Sphenomorphus cherriei

Anguidae:

- Diploglossus bilobatus

- Mesaspis monticola

Gekkonidae:

- Hemidactylus frenatus

- Hemidactylus garnoti

- Lepidodactylus lugubris

- Thecadactylus rapicauda

- Sphaerodactylus millepunctatus

- Sphaerodactylus graptolaemus

- Lepidoblepharis xanthostigma

- Gonatodes albogularis

Xantusiidae:

- Lepidophyma flavimaculatum

Dactyloidae:

- Anolis biporcatus

- Anolis frenatus

- Anolis humilis

- Anolis lemurinus

- Anolis limifrons

- Anolis lionotus

- Anolis pentaprion

- Anolis polylepis

- Norops oxylophus

Viperidae:

- Bothrops asper

- Bothriechis schlegelii

Boidae:

- Corallus annulatus

Colubridae(s.l.):

- Leptophis nebulosus

- Oxybelis aeneus

- Oxybelis brevirostris

- Imantodes cenchoa

- Sibon nebulatus

- Leptodeira ornata

- Geophis brachycephalus 

- Phyrononaxu poecilonotus

- Chironius grandisquamis

Crocodylidae:

- Crocodylus acutus

Alligatoridae:

- Caiman crocodilus

AMPHIBIANS

Caeciliidae:

- Gymnopis multiplicata

Plethodontidae:

- Bolitoglossa striatula

- Bolitoglossa pesrubra

Bufonidae

- Incilius coniferus

- Incilius valliceps

- Rhinella horrida

Eleutherodactylidae:

- Diasporus diastema

Craugastoridae:

- Craugastor bransfordii

- Craugastor crassidigitus

- Craugastor fitzingeri

- Craugastor gollmeri

- Craugastor megacephalus

- Craugastor noblei

- Craugastor persimilis

- Craugastor ranoides

- Craugastor taurus

Strabomantidae:

- Pristimantis cerasinus

- Pristimantis gaigei

Leptodactylidae:

- Leptodactylus melanonotus

- Leptodactylus savagei

Phyllomedusidae:

- Agalychnis callidryas

- Agalychnis lemur

- Agalychnis saltator

- Agalychnis spurrelli

- Cruziohyla silviae

Hylidae:

- Dendropsophus ebraccatus

- Dendropsophus phlebodes

- Duellmanohyla rufioculis

- Hyloscirtus palmeri

- Hypsiboas rosenbergi

- Hypsiboas rufitelus

- Scinax elaeochroa

- Smilisca baudinii

- Smilisca phaeota

- Smilisca sordida

Centrolenidae:

- Cochranella granulosa

- Hyalinobatrachium valerioi

- Teratohyla spinosa

- Sachatamia albomaculata

- Sachatamia ilex

Dendrobatidae:

- Dendrobates auratus

- Oophaga pumilio

- Phyllobates lugubris

- Silverstoneia flotator

Aromobatidae:

- Allobates talamancae

Ranidae:

- Lithobates forreri

- Lithobates vaillanti

- Lithobates warszewitschii