A Wildlife Paradise, Curú Wildlife Refuge
Curú National Wildlife Refuge and Hacienda is situated on the southern Nicoya Peninsula of northwestern Costa Rica. The wildlife is abundant here and hosts stunning beaches as well as protected bays on the Nicoya Peninsula. The area shelters species such as white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, spider Monkeys, scarlet macaws, white-tailed deer, collared peccary, coati, raccoons, coyotes, iguanas, and hundreds of species of tropical and migratory birds. Car rental Costa Rica
Curú has the country’s first private National Wildlife Refuge and is known for being an excellent example of a successful sustainable development program. Curú National Wildlife Refuge and Hacienda is overseen in a sustainable way in order to be able to produce a profit and provide local employment. In addition, it protects threatened and endangered forested habitats such as mangroves, tropical moist and dry forests, and coral reefs. Costa Rica car rental
The refuge also has other important attractions such as kayaking, snorkeling, and day trips to Tortuga Islands.
In 1999, a Costa Rican conservation organization known as Amigos de las Aves, started a Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) restoration program in Curú. Thirteen Scarlet Macaws were released and independently foraged in the forest. The organization is very satisfied with the results because the survival rate has been over 90% year over year.
They also document active nesting and in 2004 two juvenile birds between 4-5 months of age were seen flying with the flock. This is considered to be the first successful breeding of reintroduced Scarlet Macaws in Costa Rica. The macaws are monitored every day within the wildlife refuge and are commonly spotted foraging on beach almonds along Curú’s Wildlife Refuge.
The organization is planning future releases and their objective is to establish a viable population of these extraordinary birds in the area.
The Refuge also has projects to restore and conserve coral reefs. More than 15 years ago they started a reef restoration project in the Bay of Curú. For this purpose they used 7,500 old tires and important companies installed a PVC tube artificial reed in this bay. To date, this project has been a success and it has increased fish diversity and abundance and other marine life in the Bay.
In 2002, a new Psammocora stellata coral reef was found in the Bay of Curú. According to biologists, there are only three Psammocora stellata reefs in all of Costa Rica. Knowledgeable marine biologists are carrying out a scientific research project to map and study this unique Psammocora stellata coral reef in the Bay of Curú. According to them, it is the largest and healthiest of its kind in Costa Rica.
Curú also has a program called Monitoring Overwintering Survival. This is a cooperative effort among agencies, organizations, and individual bird-banders in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to run a network of mist-netting stations. Their objective is to monitor habitat-specific over-wintering survival rates for both migratory and resident landbird species coordinated by the Institute for Bird Populations. The goal of this 5-year study is to determine annual and over-wintering survival of both migratory and resident landbirds.
All these organizations are focused on learning more about how climate, weather and habitat characteristics influence all these birds. They will use this understanding to design conservation strategies to reverse population declines of Neotropical birds.
When you visit Costa Rica, come to Curú Wildlife Refuge, learn about their conservation projects, see them and be part of them.