Transition between Wet and Dry forest, Carara National Park

Time to move from the wet forest to the dry forest, but half way there we found Carara National Park. Carara is a moist forest in which you can see the transition between those two habitats, here you can find the best of both worlds but also encounter unique species. This was a only a morning stop, but a wonderful forest to visit and an interesting transition to see before getting to the dry forest.

Derek Frank (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) and Vikram Norton (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) really interested in learning about this new habitat and all the species found in there.

A cup fungi (Cookeina speciosa), a really common fungi found in Carara.

The Green and Black Poison Dart frog (Dendrobates auratus), this diurnal frogs has toxins that protects it against its predators, this common species of Carara forest feed mostly on ants where they get the compounds to produce their toxins.

The word Carara comes from the Costa Rican indigenous tribe Huetar and means crocodile. Right next to the National Park the Tarcoles River contain a really high density of crocodiles in a small area, this is an uncommon and unexplainable situation, but a good stop to see many of this incredible animals.

Important sign at the beginning of Tarcoles bridge.

What are they looking at?!

Ohh yeah, all those crocodiles.

Hungry or what?. The American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) is one of the biggest species of reptiles worldwide, as reptiles they are ectotherms who need to bask exposed to the sun to get warm, what we are seeing here is a common behavior shown by the crocodiles when they need to cool down a little.