To live surrounded by nature is one of the main reasons why many of us decided to move to Costa Ballena. Monkeys, toucans, turtles, birds, and more animals share our space daily; one of them is the crocodile.
When you live in a biodiverse area, it is important to learn how nature behaves. Crocodiles’ habitats are found all over Costa Rica, in any body of water, river, estuary, lake, channel, pond, and even the ocean. These reptiles can reach sizes of four meters or more. Their main diet consists of fish, and other wild animals, such as birds and medium size mammals.
In recent media, people talk about the crocodile’s overpopulation without necessarily a technical reason, such as a human attack, however what we need to keep in mind with the concept of overpopulation, is the ecological term that says overpopulation of a species occurs when the number of one of more species is too much for the ecosystem to offer what they need, and it forces the animals to invade non traditional habitats looking for food.
Thanks to our research at Reserva Playa Tortuga on crocodiles, we found that the population of the Térraba river is the lowest of all on the Pacific of Costa Rica. We have a measure of three crocodiles per km, where in rivers like Tárcoles there is an abundance of twenty crocodiles per km.
As we share the space with these big animals, it is important to know the specie and which parts of the year they are more aggressive, like their mating season which if the period between August to October, where the males are full of hormones and looking for territory, as well as a mate.
Now, if we look back at the concept of overpopulation, truly we can say that the fast growth of our population and human activities are actually invading the crocodile’s habitat, and so that increases the interaction probabilities. This is why it is important to be vigilant of signs, to recognize their habitat if no signs are present, as more signage is needed, and to not invade “their” space. Education and proper signage are utmost to keep our community and visitors informed and aware of this special, archaic neighbour.
Turtle release starts in the middle of August until December.
Reserva Playa Tortuga
Follow them on FaceBook or stop by the Reserva office in Ojochal
Written by Oscar Brenes
Director at the Reserva Playa Tortuga, a non-profit biological research and education center. RPT aims to contribute to the fields of biological research and science-based conservation management in the National Wetlands of the Terraba-Sierpe basin.
