Curu National Wildlife Reserve

Curu Refuge is located in the lovely region of Nicoya Guanacaste. Despite its small size, it houses a great variety of both terrestrial and marine biodiversity.

The existing habitats include semi-deciduous forest with a mixture of evergreen and semi-deciduous species, low growing forest near the beach, mangrove swamps and littoral woodland. Some of the larges trees in these forest are the silk cotton, the Panama and the redwood.

Mammals that can be seen in both the refuge and the neighboring forests include the white-tailed deer, raccoons, pacas, opossums, monkeys, coyotes and coaties. There's also a lot of species of lizards, the most common is the ctenosaur, the green iguana and boa constrictor. Birds can also be found here in abundance, such species like the laughing falcon, broad-winged hawk and the cattle egret are a common sight.

Aquatic life include nocturnal hermit crabs, which are very numerous on the beach and on land. There is an almost extinct species of oyster (Ocypode occidentalis) can be found here, as well as lobsters, chitons and mouthless crabs.