A veritable hand book for visitors to the New World tropics: the title refers only to "Costa Rica, but this is misleading because the nature that it describes will be found by tourists everywhere throughout Latin America. Its size and paper quality allow use in the field, to comfortable read, for example, before going to bed after a birdwatching day in the forest, or to check the real meaning of something you see in a walk by a beach. In contrast with other books, this is both scientifically serious and a pleasure to read, is written by biologist who have spent decades, not a few mo nths in the tropics, and deals with the species and phenomena that visitors are likely to see.
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Editorial Reviews
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REVIEW: Zaidett Barrientos and Julin Monge-Njera's The Biodiversity of Costa Rica: An ecological guide is a breathtaking surprise. Open it at random and you'll find an extraordinary combination of startling information plus awesome color photographs of birds, flowers, insects, frogs, and other sights of the Costa Rican jungle, river and sea. The amateur lover of nature will learn a trove of important facts and ideas about the natural world. If you're not already a nature lover, this book will make one of you. Did you, like me, not know that animals with flashy colors are usually dangerous? When the authors remind you of the yellow-and-black stinging bee, and the red-and-black poisonous coral snake, you quickly learn the lesson which they then apply to the brightly-colored denizens of Costa Rica. Then they switch from fright to delight; on the next page you will smile at the magnificently-colored macaw that isn't dangerous at all. (Does the color-danger relationship not hold for birds, who can flight away from the predators that are scared away by the colors of non-flying colorful-but-dangerous flora and fauna?). You will read how certain flowers, as well as the insects that feed on their nectar, benefit from the exchange of nectar and pollen. There are deeper ecological lessons to be learned, too: Though nectar-bearing flowers compete with each other to offer the richest nectar to attract more insects, there is a natural equilibrium system that prevents the competition from going too far and "bankrupting" the species; flowers with too rich nectar die. I hope this is just enough taste of its nectar to whet your appetite for this magnificent book. As a result of reading it, I myself now plan to visit the Costa Rican nature preserves in just a few months in order to see these wonders for myself. Might we meet there? -- Julian Simon College of Business and Management University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-1815, USA
This delightful and beautifully illustrated book by two Costa Rican biologists is designed to enhance the experiences of ecotourists and the effectiveness of ecotourism guides. To serve local as well as foreign ecotourists and guides, the book is printed in both Spanish and English. Aside from some spelling errors, the translation is generally quite good, and when there was some confusion, it was easy enough to check the Spanish original to clarify meanings. The dual-language presentation of the book might make the book ideally suited for use by CLAG members seeking to improve their Spanish skills. Costa Rican ecotourist guides without much English facility should be able to make good use of the format when guiding U.S. visitors; when they can't make their point verbally, they can pull out the book and point to a page. What this handy book does is to present a large number of vignettes about tropical nature, and its evolution, conservation, and study. Most are less than two pages and some are barely more than two paragraphs; all reference original scientific literature published by the authors or others. Topics range from the more purely biological (pollination of figs, the lifestyle of sloths, camouflage and mimicry in the animal kingdom) to applied ecology (managing urban parks to increase bird diversity), and human-environment interactions (impacts of banana cultivation on coral reefs). Some of the most interesting vignettes attempt to put into perspective just what Costa Rica has to offer the tourist interested in ecology: not large mammals, certainly (for that go to Africa), but (depending on how one does the calculations), possibly the highest biodiversity on the planet. The book includes over 30 color photographs, all excellently reproduced, and each with a paragraph-long caption that explains the organism shown. A reference list completes the book. -- Sally P. Horn, Department of Geography, University of Tennessee. In: Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers CLAG Comunication Number 90, Fall 1997, page 5
This delightful and beautifully illustrated book by two Costa Rican biologists is designed to enhance the experiences of ecotourists and the effectiveness of ecotourism guides. To serve local as well as foreign ecotourists and guides, the book is printed in both Spanish and English. Aside from some spelling errors, the translation is generally quite good, and when there was some confusion, it was easy enough to check the Spanish original to clarify meanings. The dual-language presentation of the book might make the book ideally suited for use by CLAG members seeking to improve their Spanish skills. Costa Rican ecotourist guides without much English facility should be able to make good use of the format when guiding U.S. visitors; when they can't make their point verbally, they can pull out the book and point to a page. What this handy book does is to present a large number of vignettes about tropical nature, and its evolution, conservation, and study. Most are less than two pages and some are barely more than two paragraphs; all reference original scientific literature published by the authors or others. Topics range from the more purely biological (pollination of figs, the lifestyle of sloths, camouflage and mimicry in the animal kingdom) to applied ecology (managing urban parks to increase bird diversity), and human-environment interactions (impacts of banana cultivation on coral reefs). Some of the most interesting vignettes attempt to put into perspective just what Costa Rica has to offer the tourist interested in ecology: not large mammals, certainly (for that go to Africa), but (depending on how one does the calculations), possibly the highest biodiversity on the planet. The book includes over 30 color photographs, all excellently reproduced, and each with a paragraph-long caption that explains the organism shown. A reference list completes the book. -- Sally P. Horn, Department of Geography, University of Tennessee. In: Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers CLAG Comunication Number 90, Fall 1997, page 5
From the Publisher
Zaidett Barrientos and Julian Monge-Najera's The Biodiversity of Costa Rica: An ecological guide is a breathtaking surprise. Open it at random and you'll find an extraordinary combination of startling information plus awesome color photographs of birds, flowers, insects, frogs, and other sights of the Costa Rican jungle, river and sea. The amateur lover of nature will learn a trove of important facts and ideas about the natural world. If you're not already a nature lover, this book will make one of you. Did you, like me, not know that animals with flashy colors are usually dangerous ? When the authors remind you of the yellow-and-black stinging bee, and the red- and-black poisonous coral snake, you quickly learn the lesson which they then apply to the brightly-colored denizens of Costa Rica. Then they switch from fright to delight; on the next page you will smile at the magnifice ntly-colored macaw that isn't dangerous at all. (Does the color-danger relationship not hold for birds, who can flight away from the predators that are scared away by the colors of non-flying colorful-but-dangerous flora and fauna?). You will read how certain flowers, as well as the insects that feed on their nectar, benefit from the exchange of nectar and pollen. There are deeper ecological lessons to be learned, too: Though nectar-bearing flowers compete with each other to offer the richest nectar to attract more insects, there is a natural equilibrium system that prevents the competition from going too far and "bankrupting" the species; flowers with too rich nectar die. I hope this is just enough taste of its nectar to whet your appetite for this magnificent book. As a result of reading it, I myself now plan to visit the Costa Rican nature preserves in just a few months in order to see t hese wonders for myself. Might we meet there? (Julian Simon College of Business and Management University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-1815, USA)
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