(Text and pictures on this page were
taken from a public domain source and modified by Michael Dodson and
Denny Genovese)
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This park was created to safeguard historical artifacts
of battles in 1856, 1919 and 1955 its almost 50,000 hectares of
coastline protect 115 mammal species (over half of which are bats), 100
species of amphibians and reptiles, 253 species of birds and over 10,000
species of insects, icluding some 3,200 butterflies and moth. The most
attractive mammals are white-tailed dear, the white-nosed coati, howler
and white faced capuchin monkeys and collared peccary. Some mammals,
such as jaguar, cougar and tapir, are in danger of extinction. The
tropical dry forests and mangrove swamps provide a refuge for magpie
jays, perhaps the most typical bird in the Guanacaste Province, as well
as for elegant trogons, orange fronted parakeets, great curassows and
common black-hawks, among other species. Olive ridley, green and
leatherback turtles lay their eggs on the beaches of the park.
The Santa Rosa National Park is a mosaik of some 10
different habitats: deciduous forest, oak forest, mangrove swamp,
evergreen forest, mesquite-nacascol swamp, strongly deciduous hillside
forest, littoral woodland and lightly forested savannah.
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