BIODIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA

Campylopterus hemileucurus (Deppe, 1830)
(Colibrí, gorrión, ala de sable violáceo)

Costa Rica contains 5% of the world's Biodiversity. The largest national park that is famous for its biodiversity among Ecologist is the Corcovado National Park, where there is a profusion of wildlife, which includes big cats and tapirs. The other national park found here is, Tortuguero National Park, wherein there are 320 species of birds and a huge count of reptiles. The name Tortuguero is known as, the turtle catcher ot turtle hunter. The rare Green turtle, loggerhead turtles, giant leatherback and hawksbill are found here. The white throated monkeys, are the main attractions out here. Costa Rica on a whole has around 100 speices of mamals, 2,000 plant speices and around 800 species of birds. The INBIO (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad), collects royalties on any natural discoveries of medical significance.

Plants and animals together

In the dry forests and rainforests, in the lowlands, the swamps and in the oceans, the plants and the animals are interdependent for their very survival.

It is, of course, well known how birds rely on forests to exist, and how the deforestation of the planet has threatened many species and driven some to extinction.

In the rainforests and cloud forests, plants rely on plants: the epiphytes, mainly orchids and bromeliads, live in the canopy, right on the trees, in order to get the light they need.

Atta leaf-cutter ants carry their little pieces of leaves on their backs to their homes -- the leaves are rotted into a mulch which the ants tend carefully. In that mulch, they grow a particular fungus, which is what the colony feeds on.

Take away the leaves, and the ants go away; take away the ants, and there is no food for some of the numerous species of antbirds in the forest.

Species adapt to their environment. Some poisonous animals use bright coloring to warn their prey. Some butterflies taste bad to birds; others have adapted their coloring to look like the butterflies that taste bad to birds! Some insects look just like the leaves, stems or bark among which they hide to protect themselves.

In many cases, two different species adapt themselves to fulfill each other's needs. The forests abound with insects that feed off the nectar of a specific type of flower, thus pollinating that flower and helping it survive. There are several dozen different species of figs in Costa Rica, and each one is pollinated by a different species of wasp. Modify the fig trees and the wasps will die out, as will the birds that prey on them for food. Remove the wasps and the fig trees will be gone within a generation.

Bright colors attract animals with a good sense of sight, such as the hummingbirds. Other pollinizing agents have a strong sense of smell, such as flies and butterflies; plants which they pollinate are particularly fragrant. Yet others, such as bats and some birds, are nocturnal, and there are plants which emit their scents only at night to attract them. The flowers are usually shaped to accomodate the part of the pollinizer's body that it uses to carry the pollen away -- wings, beak, feet ...

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

HOWARD GARDNER WHO CREATED THE TEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES.HE WROTE THAT DOES NOT EXIST A UNIQUE INTELLIGENCE IN THE HUMAN BEING BUT IT MARKS TO THE POTENTIALITIES OF EACH INDIVIDUAL.