Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Flora & Fauna
Nicaragua is home to about 1800 vertebrate species, including 250 mammals, and 30,000
species in total, including 688 bird species (around 500 resident and 150 migratory).
Animals are slowly working their way northward, a migration of densities that will one
day be facilitated by the Mesoamerican Corridor, a proposed aisle of shady protected rain-
forest stretching from Panama to Mexico. Other countries in on the agreement are just get-
ting started on the project, but Nicaragua's two enormous Unesco biosphere reserves,
Bosawás and Southeast Nicaragua (Río San Juan), make a significant chunk.
Animals
Most people are looking for monkeys, and there are three natives: big howler monkeys,
smaller spider monkeys and sneaky capuchins. Pizotes, elsewhere called coatis, are the
long-tailed, toothy-smiled rodents that are particularly bold on the Rivas peninsula - feed
them at your own risk. Several cats (pumas, jaguars and others) survive, but you probably
won't see them. Baird's tapirs, 250kg herbivores, are another rare treat. At night you'll see
hundreds of bats, including, maybe, vampire bats - which usually stick to livestock.
Birders are discovering Nicaragua, in particular the wild east-coast's estuaries, where
migratory birds flock, starting in August and packing places like the Río San Juan and Islas
Solentiname by September and October.
While Nicaragua has no endemic bird species of its own, 19 of Central America's 21 en-
demics are represented here. Nicaragua's spectacular national bird, the turquoise-browed
mot-mot (
guardabarranco
in Spanish), has a distinctive notched tail.
The tiny strawberry poison dart frog (
Dendrobates pumilio
) is famous for its color morphs, with
around 30 different color combinations identified.
Kingfishers, swallows, scarlet tanagers and Tennessee warblers are just a few of the birds
that make their winter homes here. Local birds are even more spectacular, including the red
macaw, the yellow-chested oropendola (which hangs its ball-shaped nests from trees), the
three-wattled bellbird of the cloud forests, with its distinctive call, and of course the
resplendent quetzal.
