Central America's Wild & Peculiar
What significance do native wildlife offer to the character of a place?
Thank you for showing yourself to us. ~ My local hiking guide said to each animal we encountered during our hot and humid overnight jungle hike in Costa Rica.
When we are at the mercy of nature, not knowing if, when or what we might see in terms of any local wildlife, that is when we can truly appreciate the relationship between animals and the land. Whether it is in the cloud-covered rainforests or the lush green jungles or even the nature havens in urban centres. And how local cultures value and find meaning among the native wildlife can provide key insights into the character of a place.
In the richly biodiverse Central American region, this interconnectedness doesn’t go unnoticed. In fact, many of the peculiar native wildlife have been assigned a great deal of significance within the local socio-cultural and natural landscapes. That is what adds to the wild charm of Central America.
The Mammals – Sharing the Mysteries of Life
The experience of encountering a mammal in Central America’s wild can be humbling. While treading softly through the woods, listening for the lightest of noises and looking for the slightest of movements, one’s senses get slowly trained to notice more of the space we share with the wildlife that have been calling this place home for generations.
Baird’s Tapir: Hiding in the quiet depths of the dense forests, away from the hot sun, and often not venturing out into the open until after sunset, the largest land mammal of the Central and South American region does not always guarantee a sighting for those who seek it out. So it comes as no surprise that the mysterious Baird’s tapir is held sacred among local communities.
According to the ancient Mayan ‘creation’ story, it is believed that the gods made humans by mixing tapir’s blood with that of the snake. Even one of the main goddesses of the Bribrí and Cabécar indigenous communities of Costa Rica happens to represent the tapir.
But the remarkability of the tapir is trumped by its title as the ‘living fossil’. Said to retain similar bone structure as the early mammals from several millennia before, it is considered to have survived several waves of animal extinction. This goes on to suggest that the ecological conditions of the tapir’s habitat have stayed fairly stable in this region. So when we step into the home of a Baird’s tapir, rest assured, we are in a space that has been centuries in the making.
White-nosed Coati: What is the wild without a bit of joy? And the perfect creatures to bring that to the Central American forests are the white-nosed coati. Their name is said to be a combination of two words in South American indigenous Tuipan language – ‘nose’ and ‘belt’ – referring to the way the coatis sleep with their nose tucked into their belly.
Known for their sociable nature, the coatis are depicted in Mayan folklore as having helped the Hero Twin demi-gods in defeating the gods of the underworld in a traditional Mayan ballgame. This remains as one of the most significant stories from the Mayan times.
Playful and curious, the white-nosed coatis stick their noses into a lot of things. But one in particular is the flower of the balsa tree. While the coatis drink the nectar from those flowers, their noses get covered with the balsa pollen which are then dispersed far and wide. This relationship of the tree providing nourishment to the coatis and the creatures allowing the balsa to regenerate through pollination, is a beautiful one that unfolds in the forests of Central America.
Tayra: The first time seeing a tayra is like a flash of pleasant surprise. When it unexpectedly appears into your line of sight, the chances are that it is just as startled as you are. At first, you may think it’s a baby puma due to its colour and stealth. By the time you get a grip of the situation, it soon disappears from sight, with its slender, agile body quickly and seamlessly navigating the thick bushes and woods.
This elusive creature of the weasel family comes with a bit of mischief of its own. A friend to some, a foe to others. Raiding corn and poultry farms, tayras can be a slight nuisance to local farmers. But their nimbleness gained favour among Indigenous communities who tamed them to control local rodent infestations. Either way, they have found themselves to be a part and parcel of the Central American community.
Tamandua: In the Costa Rican jungle of Corcovado, coming across a tamandua or lesser anteater drinking from a fallen coconut wouldn’t be unusual. Rather, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime moment to experience this forest animal thriving in its natural settings.
Using its long snout, these lesser anteaters scour through for their preferred meal consisting of ants and termites. Their ability to keep ant and termite populations under control has in turn been beneficial for protecting crop from termite damage. With a name that originates from Amazoninan indigenous words meaning ‘ant trap’, tamandua will not be easily forgotten by the Central American people, especially the farmers.
Agouti: Scientists call them a keystone species, without which entire ecosystems can be heavily altered. Indigenous peoples of Central and South America bestow on them several symbolisms and deep spiritual significance. But they are not in any way big or intimidating. Rather, they are the unassuming, unpretentious and shy rodents – the agouti.
The agouti is the only animal that can open up the hard shell of the Brazil nuts, thereby enabling the dispersal of the seeds. If it were not for the agoutis, the Amazonian rainforests would have not been able to naturally regenerate the Brazil nut trees. On top of their resourcefulness, given that these rodents also produce a lot of offspring, they have become a symbol of fertility, abundance and renewal that continue to persist among local communities.
Peccary: The pig-likeness of a peccary in no way undermines its cultural and environmental importance in the Central American region. These wild animals offer subsistence food to local Indigenous and rural populations. And like many other wildlife, the peccaries are depicted across Mayan history.
Monkeys: Central America is the proud home of four native species of monkeys – each with its unique traits and character.
Starting with the loudest land animals on earth – the howler monkeys – whose sounds can be heard from miles away. Many consider the black howler monkeys as spiritual guides of the forests warding off the evil spirits with their loud calls. Featured on several Mayan ruins, including in the Honduran town of Copan, the howler monkeys were also considered as the scribes of gods. They continue to find prominence in the 21st century Central American culture, being depicted in local art, music and even sports.
Held with great sacredness along with the howler monkeys are the spider monkeys. Their strong tail acts as their fifth limb, allowing them to swing, grab and hang onto almost anything. According to Mayan epic history, the pair of brothers (a howler and a spider monkey) were depicted as talented, artistic and creative deities. This earned them the esteemed honour as protectors of Mayan artists of the time.
Considered the most intelligent of the monkeys in the Americas, are the white-faced capuchins. Their ability to use tools to break open nuts and other food is seen as a significant clue to understanding ancient human usage of tools.
The tiniest of them all are the squirrel monkeys. Yet, they have the largest brain to body mass ratio in comparison to any monkey species worldwide. Their role in ecological balance is vital as they control the local insect populations.
Whether the shared distant ancestry or their quirky personalities, one can be sure to be attracted to the monkeys of Central America.
Sloth: If there is one animal that most people are familiar with in the Central American region, it would be the sloth. These ultra-slow moving tree-dwellers don’t have to work too hard to get into the hearts of the people. But contrary to popular myths of sloths being lazy and lethargic, their energy efficient lifestyle is in fact an ingenious survival strategy.
The movements of the sloths are so slow that they often avoid being preyed upon, easily camouflaging into the gentlest of sways of the forest canopy. Their bodies also adapted their really low metabolism rate to their low-caloric green diet, helping to conserve their energy.
Today, the sloths have become the national symbol of Costa Rica, fully championing the local spirit of Pura Vida (‘pure life’). A life that is slow-paced, peaceful and stress-free.
The Reptiles – Being One With Nature
One can easily get lost in the beauty of the green rainforest canopy and the hot sand beaches of Central America. But folded into this scenic picture and hiding in plain sight are the colour-bending local reptiles. As though one with nature, they lay still, bearing the age-old symbols of power and strength.
Parrot Snake: The parrot snake, named as such for its bright green colour, slithers through the branches of the Central American forests stealthily. Blending itself into the colours of the forest, it is almost impossible to notice this scaly reptile. Not even to the unsuspecting little creatures who are likely to end up as its prey.
This power dynamics of a snake is recognized in the Mayan culture, where the Snake Dynasty is thought to be one of the most powerful that ruled the Mayan empire. The snake is also believed to represent the link to the underworld, appearing in many of the art forms of the Mayan period.
Basilisk Lizard: When a creature displays miraculous behaviour, it is often expected to extend a religious connection. For the basilisk lizard, its ability to walk/run on water has earned it the name, ‘Jesus Christ lizard’. But even before the spread of Christianity, some of the Mayan rulers themselves were named after lizard species. Indicating their importance to the culture.
Iguanas: Unlike the basilisk lizard, the green iguana is savoured among a number of Central and South American countries for its meat. Dubbed the ‘chicken of the tree’ or gallina de palo, the green iguana supposedly tastes like chicken. This cooking and eating of these green creatures seems to have been a tradition passed down by various local indigenous communities.
While not as bright-coloured as the green iguana, but still learning to protect itself from various predators is the Helmet-headed Iguana. Often hard to sight, this notoriously adaptive ‘forest chameleon’ paints itself onto the bark of the tree it rests upon.
While the green and helmet-headed iguanas stay camouflaged on the trees, people would be surprised to walk out onto some of the Central American beaches only to find what they see as logs are actually iguanas. These creatures, also holding the title as the fastest lizard in the world, are the Black spiny-tailed iguanas. They lend themselves as an iconic cultural symbol in Mayan art and mythology, recognized for this power and strength.
The Avians – Connecting Different Realms
Hovering from the ground to the sky, birds nudge us with a different perspective and imagination of the wild. Imprinted into the lives of man and nature, we can easily be captivated by all that lies beneath the stunning beauty of the Central American winged creatures.
Scarlet Macaw: Revered both by ancient civilizations and modern day societies, is the multicoloured scarlet macaw. Worshipped by the Mayans for its bright plumage, with colours representing the sky and the sun, the relationship with the macaws transcended beyond a cultural sense into a spiritual level. Walking through the Mayan ruins of Copán, Honduras, one is able to see the winged creatures both in the flesh and all across the stone sculptures.
The Copán valley, being extremely fertile and rich in natural resources, was a no-brainer for the Mayans to establish a major city there. So seeing ancient structures in Copán with carved macaw heads and monuments of gods featuring macaw feather headdresses indicates the importance of macaws to the Mayan civilization. This brightly multi-toned bird was so integrated into the Mayan culture, that it was often challenging to separate myth from reality.
Today the scarlet macaw is under protection from illegal hunting for their prized feathers and has become the national symbol of Honduras.
Great Curassow: Walking through the urban rainforest of La Fortuna, Costa Rica in the early morning hours, one is likely bound to see the great curassow daintily walking around with an elegant crest. One with black plumes and yellow beak, and the other with bronze feathers make them seem like distinct species, but they are the male and female of the same.
As per local myth, the curassows stole fire from the jaguar and gave it to humans. However during that process of carrying the burning hot logs, the flames burned their feathers giving their crest the crispy curls. Whether one believes this or not, we cannot deny the graceful nature that exudes from the curassows to the space around it.
Yellow-throated Toucan: The rainforests of Central America are always alive with various sounds and bird calls echoing through them. But it doesn’t take one long to learn to distinguish the unique high pitched sounds of the yellow-throated toucan, that come in different tones and notes.
The flamboyant colours and distinct vocals of the yellow throated toucan has propelled it to become one of the most popular birds of Central America. It has unofficially become an ecotourism ambassador across the region being featured on souvenirs and tourism guides. But as a species threatened due to the loss of their habitats, while promoting the rich biodiversity of the region, it also raises awareness about the importance of conservation.
Crested Guan: Jumping between the high vine branches of the cloud forests of Costa Rica is one of the most vulnerable species of birds in the region. The crested guan is often the first to disappear from a habitat under pressure. Being a primary target of many hunters for their prized meat adds pressure to the guan’s already-sensitive reproductive system resulting in them laying only two eggs per year. Therefore, scientists often use them as an ‘indicator species’ to assess the health of an ecosystem that might be affected by environmental factors or human practices such as over-hunting.
The pressures the crested guan bears may not be apparent when we see it in the wild, but the truths it waits to reveal is no less real.
Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird: Perhaps most commonly sighted among the birds here are the small, delicate rufous-tailed hummingbirds. Yet, that doesn’t diminish the hummingbird’s Mayan status as the esteemed messenger between the living and dead, supposedly created to take the thoughts and desires of the gods from one place to another.
So fascinating is the iridescent plumage of the hummingbird, that the Mayans believed the bird to be actually the sun, in disguise to court the moon. Therefore, for a hummingbird in the city or otherwise, it is a reminder that size doesn’t matter for splendor and value.
King Vulture: When a vulture is mentioned, oftentimes the first image that pops into our mind is a hungry bird circling around a dead carcass. But after seeing a king vulture in its natural wild Central American habitat, a new image replaces it – one that demands respect.
Although today one might perceive vultures as harbingers of death, in Mayan mythology, they were symbols of rebirth and transformation. Seen as a messenger between humans and gods, the Mayans worshipped this royal looking creature. The dominance expressed in its posture probably was also the reason that many of the ancient leaders wore neckwear with vultures as a symbol of their authority.
So after an encounter with the king vulture in Central American forests, it is hard to get rid of this peculiar image of a king of the dead and the living.
Into The Wild
While these are just a few of the hundreds of animals and birds native to Central America, the age-old close ties of the native wildlife with the culture and ecosystem of a place is more than evident. The deep interconnections and significance forged between the land, man and the wildlife over centuries can be best understood when we respectfully and patiently experience the Central American wild in its rawness.
Travel Tips
Tip for the Open-Minded Traveler
For the various wildlife you encounter during your travel, find out which ones are native to the place you are visiting.
Tip for the Curious Traveler
Chat with locals or read further into how the native wildlife you encounter in the place you are visiting connects to local mythology, traditions, culture, ecology, etc.
Tip for the Reflective Traveler
Think about how relevant social, cultural and ecological connections are to your encounters with native wildlife in the place you are visiting or currently live in. How does that affect the way you share and care for the space with the wildlife?