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robbobert β Crested Caracara
Published: 2013-03-18 18:15:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 767; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 13
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Taken back in 2012 while I was in Costa Rica. This was at the Costa Rica Zoo. Yes, I went to the zoo in Costa Rica. Kinda redundant I know, given that the whole country is about wildlife and conservation, but it was still enjoyable. Small zoo, but they did a really good job of showing people local wildlife. No lions or tigers or anything like that. Just Costa Rican wildlife. Really cool idea.Related content
Comments: 24
What a truly beautiful image. Amazing and brilliant shot!
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Glad you like it! Thank you.
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Robert, this is how I drew thisΒ shonechacko.deviantart.com/artβ¦
Thank you!
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Lovely photo of a lovely bird! I never get tired of lions and tigers but it's fun to see animals i've never seen before. I really like that I can see the border where the feathers start growing on its scaly face. Cool!
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Thank you. Caracaras are really cool birds. We actually get them (just abrely) here in Texas, but I've never really gotten a good look in the wild before. I don't know what it is, but the bright orange face and black cap really make me love this bird. It's right up there with Bateleur Eagle on my list of awesome birds of prey.
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In which zoo have you been in Costa Rica? The zoo in San Jose used to have 2 live lions when I was there back in 2010. The tiger and cogar where stuffed in the expedition hall where kids can do experiments/ or have a closer look at some insects and boards that explain climate and water circulations.
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Zoo Ave is the name in case you want to look it up.
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We were going to go to the San Jose Zoo, but we heard some less than stellar reports about it, so we went to the zoo in Alajuela instead. I've heard the one in San Jose has made some major improvements over the past several years, but I wasn't able to verify one way or the other while I was there. How was it when you were there?
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I would say it was mixed. And it depends to which standards you compare it. The giant marten and the racoons certainly had too tiny and boring cages, which rather looked like some back yard experiment. Some birds sat in not too big cages where "flying" other than hopping from one branch to another was not really possible, others were okay.
The lions had a typical exhibit from the European 60's. Teir cage was rather small, and lacked grass or natural ground, but had a platform to lie on. But that's (sadly) how Europe big cats were "stored" normally until recent year. On the other hand small cats like the ozelot had comparebly huge cages with stuff to climb and several plattforms. The exhibits for the spider monkeys and coaties were certainly rather new. They were outside on the grass, had plattforms and ropes, shadow and sunlight and lots of space.
In total my impression was that you can certainly see they don't have a lot of money for it. But you could see that they pay more attention to what benefits the animals, instead of what looks nice to the visitor. So they use plain wood and mash-wire fence, as well as unpainted concrete. And that's okay. They also pay a lot attention to educate the visitors about the animals and the eco system. Especially the hall I mentioned was loaded with information, ready to be used by scholl clases. It was established with tables and seats and it looked like it was visited frequently. At one point in the zoo you can see a river which floats behind the zoo, and it is full of rubbish. The zoo took advantage of this and cut down some shrubs,so visitors can see the waste in the river. Next to this "window" they put a sign with infos about why the rivers are dirty and where the waste comes from, and what idividuals have to do to stop this.
This was my first non-European zoo, and I had feard worse. Visitors where friendly to the caged animals. I feared people throwing stones or things like that. But it is a pleasent small place, which is mostly only visited by locals. When I was there I was the only foreign. Costa Rica has amazing wildlife, but to see it you need money and time. And with the local city people as the major target group I think the zoo is doing a very good job.
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Good to hear. I know that they applied for some grants several years ago, so it's nice to see they are making improvements for the animal, even if they are only incremental changes right now. The emphasis on environment and conservation is good too. That's one thing the entire country as a whole is really good at doing, is promoting conservation.
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Yes, Costa Rica is really a leading force when it comes to promoting good ecotourism. They stopped having an army and now the money goes into preserving nature, ecotourism and education.
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That is an awesome idea. There are some zoo visitors who are from out of the country and I bet wouldn't mind seeing some critters native to the area.
I've been to a few zoos in the states that have just local species, or have a huge portion of the zoo dedicated to species from around the area.
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Agreed. Part of me also thinks that I'd be surprised how many Costa Rican citizens, specifically in San Jose, don't really know their wildlife too well. Kind of the same problem as in the US where you live in a big city and it ends up being all you really know. I could be totally making that up, but I wouldn't be surprised.
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Yes. It would be pretty awesome if the locals knew more about the local wildlife.
At the Oregon zoo they had a bear cub(not so much a cub anymore) and he really liked to climb trees. And all of the visitors were like 'Holy crap, bears climb trees?!?'
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A lot of visitors might have disabilities that inhibit them from taking wildlife tours or from just walking into the woods - a zoo focused on local wildlife is a great idea for those people I think.
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Thank you. I had to dodge raindrops to grab it, so I'm glad you like it.
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