Howler monkeys

In theory, the day in Tortuguera should have allowed us to see most, if not all, the wildlife seen today. But the rain rather spoiled that plan.

So today, with no planned activities on the itinerary, our guide helped most of us to book a tour at Caño Negro. It was a good 1½ hours drive north, towards Nicaragua. But the trip on the boat on Rio Frio was excellent.

The howler monkey (and its baby) in the main blip demonstrate some orange colouration. The normal colour for the black mantled howler monkeys is, as might be guessed from their name, black, but with some long pale hairs on the sides of their bodies. Prior to seeing her, we had seen a fully orange male – one of only a handful known to exist. There are discussions about where this comes from, and why. The actual physical cause is the formation of pheomelanin instead of eumelanin. But is this due to the extensive use of sulphur containing pesticides in Costa Rica, or is it excessive inbreeding (perhaps due to habitat loss and reduced inter-troupe mixing) resulting in higher expression of a recessive gene? These excessively orange monkeys are a potential danger to their troupe, as they are much more visible to predators.

Whatever the cause, it makes for a good photo.

In addition to the howler monkeys, we saw a selection of birds, including a good view of a yellow-crowned night heron, 1st extra, a white ibis, 2nd extra and mangrove swallows, 3rd extra, who were rarely still, spending most of their time flitting busily around the boat doing their best to keep us free from mosquitoes. We also saw lots of extremely colourful iguanas – the males are in their breeding outfits, 4th extra, and a large caiman.

After a tasty buffet lunch, we went a short distance to be regaled with moonshine and chocolate.

On our return to La Fortuna, we had a wander around the hotel garden, and then a walk to the small Central Park, then relaxed for a while before going out for a meal at a local restaurant.

All in all, another great day.